
Class 7^101,5 
Book -,E4 






XTbe THniv>ersttE of Cbicago 

FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 



THE ROMANCE OF EMARE 

RE-EDITED FROM THE MS 
WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND GLOSSARY 



A DISSERTATION 

UBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND 

LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

(LEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH) 



BY 

EDITH RICKERT 



CHICAGO 
1907 



£ V7 






-*-y 



The U z'uversity. 

F 2 '09 



\ 



PREFACE. 

This edition was prepared in 1898-99; but as it had to wait 
its turn on the list of the Early English Text Society, it has been 
completely revised, and extended in the light of several fresh 
publications on the subject, which have appeared in the mean- 
time. My thanks are due to Dr. Furnivall for good advice 
on many occasions, and to Professor Manly, of the University 
of Chicago, for reading the proofs. 

London, July 19, 1907. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction : — 

§ 1. Manuscript 

§ 2. Editions 

§ 3. Dialect 

§ 4. Metre 

§ 5. Style 

§ 6. Author and Date 

§ 7. Immediate Source 

§ 8. Origins 

§ 9. Conclusion 

Appendix 
Text 

Notes ... 
Glossarial Index 
Index of Names 



PAGE 

ix 

xi 

xiii 

xviii 

xxii 

xxviii 

xxviii 

xxxii 

xlviii 

xlix 

1 

33 

49 

55 



INTKODUCTION. 

§ 1. Manuscript, pp. ix-xi. I § 6. Author and Date, p. xxviii. 

§ 2. Editions, pp. xi-xiii. [ § 7. Immediate Source, pp. xxviii- 

§ 3. Dialect, pp. xiii-xviii. xxxii. 

§ 4. Metre, pp. xviii-xxii. | § 8. Origins, pp. xxxii-xlvii. 

§ 5. Style, pp. xxii-xxvii. i § 9. Conclusion, p. xlviii. 

§ 1. THE MANUSCKIPT. 

MS. Cotton Caligula A ii, in the British Museum, consists of 
two paper quartos, originally marked Vespasian D 8 and Vespasian 
D 21, 1 hound together with the present designation before 1654. 2 

Vespasian D 8, which contains Emare (fols. 71-76) is, in the 
main, a collection of English verse (fols. 3-1 39) ; 3 Vespasian D 21 
contains statutes of the Carthusian order, 1411-1504 (fols. 144- 
210); fols. 142, 143 seem to he the parchment cover of Vespasian 
D 21 ; 4 and fols. 1, 2, 140, 141, blank pages inserted when the 
two volumes were bound together. 5 

Vespasian D 21, in the 16th century, belonged to a Cam- 
bridgeshire family, the Cookes of Milton ; 6 and very possibly came 
from Denney Abbey, about 7| miles north of Cambridge. 7 The 

1 In a 17tli century hand on fols. 3, 140. 

2 They are not mentioned in the two earliest catalogues extant ; while in 
the third, compiled before 1654, Caligula A ii is entered with a table of 
contents corresponding to the Elenchus on fol. 1. 

3 Together with a translation from John of Bordeaux of a treatise on 
pestilence, and a form of confession in prose ; also four prescriptions, and a 
short Latin chronicle. 

4 Fol. 143& contains the signature "Thomas Cooke gen)," which is plainly 
blotted on fol. 144a. Fol. 142 is blank and about h inch narrower than 143, 
as if it had been folded upon itself in the binding, in such a way that it 
brings the two rough sides of the parchment together. 

5 Fol. 1 contains the 17th century Elenchus. Fols. 1 and 2 show no 
water-marks, but the marks on fols. 140, 141 are different from all others in 
the book, and these folios are also shorter than the others, and with the lower 
edges untrimmed. In all four, the paper is thinner and of a different quality. 
In fols. 140, 141 the grain runs across, not down, the ] age. 

6 A second signature on fol. 143& is "Thomas Cooke de Mylton)." The 
writer was born in 1541, the elder son of Judge William Cooke, lord of the 
manor (see latter's will in Somerset House). 

7 At least, the Cookes seem to have built a new house out of its stones, 
when it was demolished in 1538 {History of the Parish of Milton, Camb. Antiq. 
Soc, XI, 1869, p. 28). 



x The Manuscript. 

only clue to the origin of Vespasian J) 8, the inscription " Donum 
Jo. Eogers" (fol. 3), in a 16th century hand, is too slight to he 
of use. 1 

Its date, however, can be ascertained within narrow limits. It 
contains Lydgate's Nightingale (fols. 59-64?/), written not before 
1446, almost certainly in that year; 2 likewise a short Latin 
chronicle of England (fols. 109-110), which is carried down to 
the reign of Henry VI by the hand that seems to have written all 
the other pieces 3 (except the four prescriptions on fol. 13b), while 
a second hand adds a note of Henry's death and the reign of 
Edward IV, and a third, the reign of Eichard III. It is highly 
probable, then, that the bulk of the MS. was copied between 1446 
and 1460. 4 

It shows a great mixture and confusion of forms : 

1. Dentals. 

(a) Interchange of d and th ( = ]>, 'S) in all positions, as : 
Jiow^tur, donder, dey ; vnther, wordy (worthy), erdly ; hondereth 
(hundred). 

(b) Interchange of t and th ( = ]>) in all positions, as : thylle 
(tylle), tho (to) ; bow3j)ur ; kny3th, whythe (white), etc. 5 

2. The inflectional and unaccented stem vowel. The proportions 
in Emare alone, are as follows: -es 89, -ys 20, -us 18; -ur 97, -er 
26, -yr 17 ; -ylle 18, -ulle 9, -elle 3. 6 



1 Five men of that name, during the 16th century alone, are included in 
the Dictionary of National Biography. 

2 Lydgate's Minor Poems, ed. Glauning (E.E.T.S., Extra Series, LXXX), 
1900, pp. xxxvii-xxxviii. 

' J This is not absolutely certain. The letters are formed similarly, but 
there is some variation in fineness and closeness. However, there is no abrupt 
break ; and the gradual loosening of the hand, with occasional recurrences to 
closer writing, is better explained on the hypothesis of different times and 
moods than of different scribes. 

4 Cf. also Glauning, op. cit., p. xi. 

5 This confusion in writing seems to mark a pronunciation in which the 
front of the tongue is pressed hard against the upper teeth, with an inevitable 
thickening of the dental sound. In Mid-Yorkshire such pronunciation is 
marked, affecting d initial and before a vowel, and initial and final t. Cf. C. 
Clough Robinson, A Glossary of Words Pertaining to the Dialect of Mid- 
Yorkshire, London, 1876, pp. xiv, xvii-xviii, and p. xv below. It is found 
extensively also in Sir Gowther. 

6 The -u seems to point to West Midland influence as the -y to Northern, 
and the -e to Southern. A peculiarity which may point to the home of the 
author or of the scribe is the use of gh to represent the sound th, as in sygh 
(=syth, 560), kygh (=kyth, 594). This survives to-day in the name of 
the town Keighley (pronounced Keithley) in the West Riding (cf. p. xvii 
below). 



The Manuscript. Editions. xi 

3. Partial palatalization of k : mykylle, mychylle ; sykynge, 
worche, jdke, euerychone, etc. 1 

4. The insertion of inorganic 3 or gli, as in kow^be, grygKt, etc. 
The present MS., then, may be a Southern copy taken directly 

from a MS. written in the original dialect, including certain West 
Midland and Northern spellings by reason of proximity to these 
districts ; but the irregularity and variety of the forms suggest 
rather that it has passed through several hands. 

The MS. is incomplete, eight stanzas of Sussan, the first piece, 
being lost and a portion of the Mustache, which breaks off on fol. 
139&. 

Of the 139 leaves, about 93 contain romances or tales; 14^, 
three didactic poems by Lydgate; 26, short religious poems, chiefly 
lyrics; 2 and 5| prose.. 

Of the twelve long narrative poems, eight are romances proper: 
(1) Eglamour ofArtas, (2) Octauian Imperator, 3 (3) Launfal Miles? 
(4) Lybeaus Disconus* (5) Emare, (6) Sege of Ierusalem, (7) 
Cheuelere Assigne, and (8) Isumbras; four are religious tales or 
romances: (9) Sussan, (10) Ypotys, (11) Owayne Miles, (12) 
Tundale* 

From the plain workman-like character of the MS. and its 
marked religious and didactic element, it would seem to have been 
a tale book copied in some monastery. 

§ 2. EDITIONS. 
1. Ritson, Ancient Engleish Metrical Bomancees, 4 London, 1802, 

II, 204-247, with a list of original readings, III, 222, of correc- 
tions, III, 440, of conjectural emendations, III, 443, and full notes, 

III, 323-33. The text is practically correct, but does not indicate 
the graphic peculiarities of the MS. : ]> is printed as th, medial and 

1 The partial palatalization might be accounted for by the passing of the 
MS. through the hands of several scribes ; but it might also have belonged 
to the dialect. 

2 Three hortatory religious poems : Carta Ihesu Christi, The Stacyonys of 
Rome, Trentale Sancti Gregorii; two lives of saints, lerome and Eustache ; 
14 religious lyrics. 

3 Thought by Sarrazin and Kaluza to be by the same author, Thomas 
Chestre, who certainly wrote Launfal. They are found together, as are also 
6, 7, 8, and 10, 11, being separated from the other romances by religious 
matter. Emar6 stands alone between a short prayer in verse and the Carta 
Ihesu Christi. 

4 Reprinted by Edmund Goldsmid, Edinburgh, 1885, with a few MS. 
readings, but also with fresh errors. Kolbing published a collation of 
Ritson with the MS., Englische Studien, XV, 248. 



xii Editions. 

final 9 as gh, initial 3 as y ; u and v, and i and y are not according to 
the MS. ; the tail to n is disregarded except where I give the expan- 
sion in my notes, the tail to r always, and the crossing of 11 and h ; 
the contractions for ur, us, are printed er, es ; contractions are 
expanded, and with the few exceptions given ahove, words joined or 
separated, and a few obvious corrections made, without indication 
of change. 

2. Gough, Emare (Morsbach and Holthauseii, Old and Middle 
English Texts, vol. II), London, New York, Heidelberg, 1901. 
This text is normalized and considerably altered in an attempt to 
reconstruct the original, with MS. readings in the foot-notes, and 
a table on pp. x, xi of the principal classes of phonetic changes. 
Aside from these, in several points not deemed important enough 
for separate quotation, Dr. Gough's text differs from that of the 
present edition : the crossing of 11 and h is disregarded, expanded 
contractions are sometimes differently italicized ; the curl to r is 
sometimes disregarded, and again written re ; n), n is printed some- 
times n sometimes ren, sometimes ne ; u and v are not distinguished 
as in the MS. 

The introduction is brief ; but Dr. Gough treats of the sources 
of Emare in his paper On the Constance Saga (Brandl and Schmidt, 
Palaestra, no. 23, Berlin, 1902) and its metrical and grammatical 
aspects in his dissertation, On the Middle English Metrical Romance 
of Emare, Kiel, 1900, which I obtained late; hence, I have used it 
chiefly in my notes. 

3. The present edition aims to give the text as the scribe 
intended it to be read. Expansions of contracted forms, additions 
and a few obvious corrections are indicated. 1 Capitals and punc- 
tuation are modern. It has been thought expedient to give in 
the foot-notes, aside from the classes of changes mentioned, the few 
special cases in which Bitson (B.) and Gough (G.) vary from the 
MS. Gough's emendations, in so far as they seem to find a basis 
in the text itself, are given in the notes at the end of the volume. 

In a unique MS. which bears internal evidence of being a copy, 2 
and shows a great mixture of dialects, I have not attempted to 
restore the text, believing that such a reconstruction must be largely 
arbitrary. 

1 Expansions by italics ; additions in brackets ; probable omissions in 
parentheses. 

2 Cf. Emare, 11. 331, 332, 337, which show plainly that the scribe had lost 
his place ; likewise 837, 839, 840. 



Editions. Dialect. xiii 

I have departed from recent custom, in expanding rl to lie 
inasmuch as in Emare there is not a single instance of 11 or He. 1 I 
have retained the marking of gh, h, n), n, r>, because I am unable 
to find any principle governing the usage. 

In regard to gh, 3th, h, the balance of evidence seems to show 
that the stroke has lost its value, although in a few cases an -e 
added serves to correct the metre. 2 

The marking of m, n, n), if expanded at all, must be rendered 
sometimes un, mi, mm, sometimes me, ne ; but there are also cases 
in which it must be meaningless. 3 

The curl to r seems, to be mere ornament. 4 

In the Introduction, I have endeavoured, in addition to a brief 
treatment of the dialect and metre, which afford no special 
problems, to make a careful study of the style and sources of the 
poem, with a view to determining its place and relationships in 
mediaeval literature. 

§ 3. DIALECT. 
A. Phonology. 
A study of the rhymes gives the following results : 
a. Vowels. 
O.E. a is retained. 5 

O.E. a, wavers between and a. It becomes in fome (835, 
818) rhyming with trone (836) and with come (817), trone (820), 
Rome (821); home (601) rhyming with sone (O.E. sona, 602); 

1 The observation should have been continued throughout the MS. As far 
as I have been able to read (fully half), the exceptions to the rule are less than 
half-a-dozen, over against innumerable cases where the usage is uniform. I 
conclude that the sign still had meaning for this scribe. 

2 I have not observed these letters carefully throughout the MS. because in 
Emare alone the irregularity is sufficiently great. In 63 cases, -3th, gh(t) lacks 
-e and requires none ; in 42, it is required. In 16, -3th, -3h(t) lacks -e and 
requires none ; in 4, it is required. In 3, -3hte occurs but the -e is unnecessary ; 
in 3, it is needed. There are no cases of -ghte. These results are not final 
because in some cases lines may be read differently ; but they serve to show 
the confusion of practice. 

3 In Emare", gan occurs 10 times, gan) 3 ; vpon), vpoh 7 times ; vpone 1 ; 
home twice, horn 3 times, horn once ; none 3 times, non) 4, non 4 ; etc. 
Altogether, I think much more evidence is desirable before trying to settle 
this point. In Emare, the mark seems to be without meaning. Cf. also 
vseden) (62), loueden) (124), seten (218), whens (418), etc. 

4 In 91 cases in Emare", we find -er, -ur ; in 21 -ere ; in 31 er\ Her as 
adverb occurs 19 times, here once, hei once ; her as pronoun, 20 times, over 
against here once and her 1 16 times. There is also a great preponderance of 
ther, per, wer, neuur, euur, over the forms in -e. 

5 Cf. 11. 757-58 ; 1031-30 ; 195, 201. 



xiv Dialect. 

anon) (886) with sone (O.E. sunu, 887); oon (157) with sonne 
(O.E. sunu, 158); lore (412) with be-fore (413). It is retained in 
gare (198) rhyming with chare (O.Fr. char, 201); sore (633) and 
more (636), with spare (630) and kare (O.E. cearu, 627); a-lone 
(693) and wo-by-gone (696) rhyming with name (O.E. nama, 687) 
and tane (690). 

O.E. & becomes usually a, 1 but twice e : was (463) rhyming 
with prese (O.Fr. presse, 464), sete (221, 893) with swete (O.E. 
swete, 220, 892). 

O.E. ai becomes usually e, 2 but it is once a: there (204) 
rhyming with chare (201) gare (O.E. gara, 198) fare (O.E. faran, 
195); and once o: wore (410) rhyming with be-fore (413). 

O.E. e remains 3 except in ecg, eg, where it becomes ay: say 
(416, 435) rhymes with ray (O.Er. rai, 415) gay (O.Fr gai, 444). 

O.E. e remains. 4 

O.E. ea varies. It becomes a: bale 1010) rhyming with pale 
(O.Fr. pale, 1009); kare (627) with spare (O.E. sparian, 630). It 
becomes o: be-holde (249) rhyming with golde (O.E. gold, 243) 
and molde (O.E. molde, 246). It becomes e: marke (504) rhymes 
with clerke (O.E. cleric, O.Fr. clerc, 495).° 

O.E. ea becomes e, 6 once written ee: lees (O.E. leas, 110) 
rhymes with heperaies (O.E. hse^ennys, 109). 

O.E. eo becomes e: 7 but ^ynge (380, etc.) rhymes with byng 
(O.E. ]>ing, 379-82) kyng (O.E. cyng, 383) etc. 

O.E. eo becomes e, 8 but both 3ede and $ode occur: jede (O.E. 
eodon, 213) rhymes with stede (O.E. steda, 210); 3ode (O.E. eude, 
516) with blode (O.E. blod, 513) gode (O.E. god, 510), fode (O.E. 
foda, 507). 

O.E. i, i, y, y, from whatever source, remain as y, rhyming 
together and with French i. 9 The one exception is euylle (O.E. y- 
fel, 535) rhyming with deuylle (536). 10 

1 Cf. 11. 121-22, 289-90, 374-73, 459-62-65, 557-56 ; 773-72. So ceg 
becomes ay : may (452) rhyming with ray (O.Fr. rai, 451). 

2 Cf. 207-210 ; 345-42-39 ; 826-27 ; 803-2 ; 662-61 ; 548-49-46-52 ; 
1002-999. 

3 Cf. 11. 567-73-76 ; 190-91 ; 434-33. 

4 Cf. 11. 215-14 ; 237-34 ; 175-76 ; 342-39, etc. 

B No other instances occur. 6 Cf. 11.816-10-07. 
'• Cf. 11. 498-501-495. 

8 Cf. 11. 8-7, 423-26-32 ; 291-94-97-300 ; 792-89-86-83, etc. 

9 Cf. 11. 599-98 ; 327-30-33-36 ; 227-26 ; 951-54-57-60 ; 581-80 ; 526- 
27 etc. 

10 Also the e from y in he>ennes (cf. 11. 109-10), but this was originally 
unstressed. Here (1005) probably came from the form heran. 



Dialect. xv 

O.E. 6 remains. 1 

O.E. o remains except before 3th, ght where it becomes ow. 2 

O.E. u becomes o. 3 

E. u becomes ow, rhyming with a similar development out 
of O.Fr. u, ou: towne (O.E. tun, 804) rhymes with renowne (O.Fr. 
renumee, 801 ); 4 bowre (O.E. bur, 63) with flowre (O.Fr. flour, 66), 
honour (O.Fr. honour, 69), emperour (O.Fr. emperour, 72). 5 

b. Consonants. 

The chief point of interest shown by the rhymes is that -h -gh, 
seems to have lost its guttural quality: hygfr (O.E. higian, 103) 
rhymes with fayry (O.Fr. faerie, 104); hye (O.E. heah, 193) with 
melodie, (O.Fr. melodie, 194). 6 

There is some evidence in 11. 663-66-69-72 to show that the 
author shared the scribe's confusion of d, th, (=]>, > 8), or t, th 
( = J>)tJ 

B. Inflections. 

Inorganic -e is commonly written, but can rarely be attributed 
with any degree of certainty to the author. 8 

Nouns form their plural regularly in -s, -es (-is, -ys, -us in the 
MS.). 9 The plural in -n occurs once. 10 There are several plurals 
without ending, 11 one with umlaut. 12 

Adjectives have no ending or -e. 

Pronouns are regular: me, we; pe, the, Jyn; he. 

Adverbs end in -ly, -lye, or have no ending. 13 

Verbs afford the chief tests of dialect. 

1 Cf. 11. 163-64, etc. 2 Cf. 11. 2-1, 170-69, 583-84, etc. 

3 Cf. 11. 5-4, 224-25, 82-83, 978-75-81-84, etc. 

4 Also with treson, reson (795-98) which must stand for tresoun, resoun. 

5 Cf. also 11. 899-98 ; 663-66-72. 6 CI. also 11. 165-59-62-68. 

7 And perhaps (so G.), in the rhymes wrothe-othe (265-66), bot-wote 
(268-69). 

8 Cf. 11. 80, 349, 657, 694. Cough's emendations are given in the notes 
at the end. About a dozen other cases might be cited, all more or less uncertain. 

9 But sometimes two forms are used, as flowrys (29) and flour (125, 149) ; 
bowrys (28) and bowre (899). Plurals with and without -s often occur together 
(cf. 11. 91, 94, 154, 155, 389-90, 898-99). 

10 Yjen (298) rhyming with syjen (299). 

11 Honde (MS. hond«s, 639) rhymes with londe (642), sonde (645) wronge 
(648) ; yere (816) rhymes with dere (813) clere (810) chere (807); ston (100) 
with non) (101) ; stye (196) with lady (197), strete (543) with swete (546), etc. 
}>yng occurs frequently, but always in a formula probably archaic (cf. 11. 40, 
64, etc.). 

12 Fete (211) rhymes with swete (212). Fote (1017) rhyming with bote 
(1011) I take to be a survival of the old dative plural fotum. Fete, however, 
is in the same construction. 

13 Cf. 11. 287-86 ; 631-32 ; 854-53 ; 868-69 ; 894-91-900-897. 



xvi Dialect. 

The present infinitive loses its -n in S3 cases; and keeps it in 
9, affecting, however, only 5 verbs : sene, done, bene, tane, gone. 1 

The present participle is not found in rhyme, the one case 
given by Wilda being inconclusive. 2 

The perfect participle keeps its -n in 9 cases, 5 verbs: done, 
sene, forlorne, borne, gone; 3 and loses it in 3 cases, 2 verbs: be, 
holde. 4 

The prefix y- is twice found and is necessary for the rhythm. 5 

The indicative present singular is not found. The plural ends 
in -e: (we) rede (216) rhymes with stede (210, dat. sing.); ($e) 
ryde (971) with be-tyde (970, 3rd sing. pres. opt.); (they) stonde 
(116) with honde (115, dat. sing.). Weak verbs have n + d become 
nt. G 

Very few forms of the preterite occur. 7 Among strong verbs : s 
(she, he) sete (221,893) rhyming with swete (220,892); (they) 
ponge (659), with strorag (658); (they) sye (68), sy (869), with slye 
(67), curteysly (868); and also (they) syjen (299) rhyming with 
y 3 en (298). 

The optative ends in -e. 9 

The few preteritive present forms are not peculiar. 10 

Among the anomalous verbs, the only notable form is wes 
(written was) rhyming with prese (cf. p. xiv above). 11 

C. Summary. 
lhe dialect is North-East Midland as Wilda 12 concluded ; but 
its Northern character must be emphasized. Common to the 

1 Cf. 11. 423, 486-432, 483, 489, 492 ; 4, 975-5, 978, 981, 984; 426, 626- 
432, 625 ; 690-687-693-696 ; 741-35-738-744. 

2 Ubcr die Ortliche Verbreitung der Zwolfzeiligen Schweifreimstrophe in 
England, Breslau, 1887, pp. 27, 28. The line is 974 : "A-3eyn pe emperour 
komynge," where komynge is a verbal noun, of which there are various other 
instances (cf. 11. 118-119, 511, 759, etc., with a dependent genitive. 

3 Cf. 11. 229, 406, 469, 856-230, 407, 470, 857 ; 429-432 ; 255-261 ; 258, 
520-264, 521 ; 696-693, 687. 

4 Cf. 11. 364, 718-365, 719 ; 1027-1028. 

5 Y-borne (520), y-dyjth (395). In 1. 440, which otherwise repeats 1. 395, 
it is needed. 

6 Cf. 11. 235-36, 931-32, 190-91, etc. 

7 The old passive hatte appears as hy3te (85), 3rd singular, but may be 
due to the scribe. 

8 Cf. 11. 235, 931, 1015-236, 932, 1016 ; 190, 434-191, 433, for weak verbs. 

9 Cf. 11. 263-62 ; 630-27 ; 253-54 ; 970-71. 

10 Cf. 11. 672-63-66-69; 269-68; 252-46-43; 720-17-14-11. 

11 The -s endings within the line (1032-1033) are more probably survivals 
than interpolations. 

12 Op. tit., p. 26. 



Dialect. xvii 

Northern and Midland dialects are: (1) the wavering of O.E. a, 
between a and o ; 1 (2) the retention of O.E. y, y (derived by 
umlaut) ; 2 (3) the adverbial ending -ly, -lye. Northern are : 
(1) the dropping of -n in the infinitive (the exceptions in Emare 
occur in texts purely Northern) ; (2) the persistence of -n in the 
past participle ; (3) the assimilation of the vowel of the plural to 
that of the singular, in the preterite of strong verbs. 3 On these 
grounds I judge that the author lived north of the Humber. 

In the hope of obtaining additional evidence for or against this 
belief, I have compared the vocabulary of Emare with more than 
30 glossaries of the 14th and loth centuries, and with the various 
modern word-lists published by the English Dialect Society. 
Among these last, the Yorkshire glossaries contain about 20 of 
the 40 uncommon or dialectical forms in Emare (of which 10 or 
more are now obsolete), such as : bigging, ding, fell, felter, fra, 
gate ( = way), gether, greet ( = weep, with preterite gruot), kell, kith, 
lashed, lovesome, ma, mense, mickle, til ( = to), wor, war ( = was), 
yark. Of these 40 words, 4 Chaucer contains only 6 ; 5 of three 
Yorkshire texts, Y shows 28, T 23, MA 25;° three supposed 
Lancashire poems, EEAP, 25 ; 7 a text showing marks of both X.E. 



1 G. gives 17 cases of o to 3 of a. I count 15 o to 5 a, including Abro as 
determinative of o, which it certainly is not. Omitting Abro-rhymes, I make 
9 o to 5 a ; if Abro = Ahra, as I have shown (note on 1. 57 below), the count 
becomes 9 o to 11 a. 

- Of. also Kolbing's Amis and Amilovm (Alteng. Bib., II), 1884, pp. 
xxxi-xxxii, in connection with 11. 109-10, 463-64. 

3 L. 659 only. 

4 After various experiments with different numbers of words, I decided to 
limit the comparison to those most characteristic and least common, barring 
words immediately derived from the French. Accordingly, I have used : 
byggynge, de[l]fulh, felle, feltred, fode, fryght (frith), gate (way), grette, kygh 
(kith), lasshed, lay (law), le, lufsumme, mangery, menske, molde, myn, mynge, 
rappes, sale, snelle, stye, |>onge (dongc), tylle, warye, parked, 300 ; and the 
forms : by-forn, drury, erdly, Iro, gedered, kelle, keuered, moo, mykyl, tane, 
vmbraydest, word (world), 3yng. 

5 Beforn, fro, keuered, lay, moo, tylle. That difference in scale of works 
compared does not obviate results appears thus: Florence of Borne, in 2187 
lines, has 13 of these words, Sir Gowther, in 756, 19, to Chaucer's 6. 
Promptorium Parvulorum (Norfolk, cire. 1440) has 9, Catholicon Anglicum 
(X.E. Midland (?), 11,83) has 12, or proportionately twice as many. 

I must ask indulgence if here and there are errors in the counting, 
especially in the case of texts which lack glossaries ; but an occasional 
mistake of this sort would not affect the general relationship of the groups of 
numbers. 

6 Y = York Plays, T = Tovmeley Plays, MA = Thornton Morte Arthure 
(supposed Yorkshire), all in MSS. nearly contemporary with Cotton Caligula 
A ii. 

7 Early English Alliterative Poems (ed. Morris, E. E. T. S. 1). 
EMARE. b 



xviii Dialect. Metre. 

Midland and W. Midland dialects, WA, 30. 1 Further, 2 among 
about 40 modern English dialect lists, the Whitby and Mid- 
Yorkshire glossaries 3 contain each about 15 of these words, while 
those of N. W. Lincolnshire, the Lake District, Durham, Lanca- 
shire and Derby have from 7 to 12 each; and no list, 4 I believe, 
outside Yorkshire and its neighbours (as given above), shows more 
than 4. The dialect of Emare thus belongs to the very locality 
indicated by Trivet (cf. p. xxxiii below), between the Humber and 
Knaresborough, 5 i. e. Mid-Yorkshire. 

§ 4. METEE. 
A. Stanza scheme. 

Of the 86 12-line, tail-rhyme stanzas, 57 are according to the 
scheme : (1) aabccbddbeeb, or variants of this form ; 29, according 
to (2) aabaabccbddb or variants. 6 

Among the 57, the modifications are entirely in the fourth unit 
of the stanza. 7 Thus we find : (a) aabccbddbeeb in 47 cases ; 

(b) aabccbddbddb in 7 cases; 8 (c) aabccbddbeeb in 2 cases; 9 
(d) aabccbddbaab in one case. 10 That is, the last couplet may 
consist of (a) a fresh rhyme; (b) the third couplet repeated; 

(c) the second couplet repeated ; (d) the first couplet repeated. 
Among the 29, we find: (a) aabaabccbddb in 19 cases; 11 

1 Wars of Alexander (early 15th century). Skeat (p. xxiii) points out the 
mixture of dialects, which seems to me to indicate a Border district. 

2 Among other texts, Torrent of Portyngale, Degrevant, Isumbras and 
Eglamour contain many of the words on the list ; but the absence of complete 
glossaries makes comparison difficult. 

3 In general, the Mid- Yorkshire dialect is credited with being more 
"Scotch" than its neighbours (Robinson, op. cit. p. vii). I note that the 
so-called Scottish Alliterative Poems (ed. Amours, Sc. Text Soc.) contain 24 
words in my list, and the Destruction of Troy (Scotch) has 18. 

4 See publications of the English Dialect Society. 

5 Robinson (loc. cit.). Trivet calls it lieu mene (p. 27) between England 
and Scotland. He was either unfamiliar with it, or considered London as 
the king's capital. But Knaresborough, although about midway between 
London and the Border, is not on either of the great roads to Scotland. 

6 For different counts, see below, p. xix, note 9. 

7 Except 86, which adds three lines : aabccbddbeebffb. 

8 Stanzas 27, 32, 51, 67, 70, 77, 83. Perhaps also 43, 47, but see p. xix 
below, with note 10. 

9 Stanzas 64, 71. 10 Stanza 34. 

11 Stanzas 1, 3, 8, 12-13, 19, 28, 31, 39, 42, 46, 57-58, 60-63, 74-75, 79, 
81. Thus there are three groups of two stanzas in succession. Possibly 
also 38, but see p. xx below, with note 10. 



Metre. Stanza. xix 

(1)) aabaabccbccb in 7 cases; 1 (c) aabaabecbaab in 3 cases; 2 that 
is, the last couplet may repeat either of the others in its rhyme. 

Emare is unique among romances of this class in its mixture of 
stanza forms. Kblbing suggested that this was intentional, 3 and 
Wild a, in endorsing the view, added that the poem was perhaps 
first written in the stricter form, and afterwards altered by a 
scribe who had lost the feeling of the original. 4 

It does not seem probable, in this case, that so small a portion 
of the first rhyme-scheme would be preserved. The four romances 
constructed according to the stricter scheme show a very small 
degree of alteration. Moreover, three of them are much older than 
Emare, 6 and the fourth is in a different dialect. 7 It seems more 
probable that the poet, who shows but little originality in any way, 
wrote the 86 stanzas in the form that 57 have retained — a form 
which was popular in his dialect and time. 8 

Notwithstanding the large proportion 9 of stanzas in the stricter 
form, the greater variation in the couplets, according to both 
schemes, makes it practically certain that the minstrel's only 
concern was to have a fresh rhyme for his first and third couplets, 
leaving the second and fourth to repeat any of the others, as an 
additional grace of style, according to the conventional tags with 
which his memory was stored. 10 

1 Stanzas 17, 26, 35, 59, 6S-69, 82. This is Kolbing's Type II, found 
only in Duke Rowlands and Sir Ottuell of Spayne. I have not treated this 
separately, as it seems to me the personal idiosyncracy of an author who could 
hardly have influenced the writer of Emare'. 

2 Stanzas 9, 20, 78. 

3 Op. cit. pp. xix-xx. 4 Op. cit. p. 27. 

5 According to Kolbing, {op. cit. pp. xv-xvii) Amis and Amiloun and the 
Kyng of Tars (in the Auchinleck MS.) show no exceptions. Reducing his 
numbers to terms of percentage I find that Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild 
lias 8^% of variation, Lybeaus Disconus, about 7%. If Emari belonged here, 
the variation would be 66%. 

6 Amis and Amiloun, Horn Childe, Kyng of Tars. 

7 Lybeaus Disconus, inS.E. England. 

8 It is used in Sir Oowthcr, Ed of Tolous, Torrent of Portyngale ; also, in 
Isumbras, Eglamour, Athelston, Sir Cleges, Sege of Mclayne, Le Bone Florence 
of Rome. 

9 Nearly 34%. Kblbing gives 35 stanzas; Gough says "about 32," but 
includes 22, 23, 43, with imperfect rhymes not confirmed elsewhere. I count 
29 without including the doubtful stanza 38. Using Kolbing's numbers for 
the other romances, I find the per cents of variation to be as follows : Launfal, 
18J% ; Octavian, 13%; Isumbras and the Erl of Tolous, 7%; Rowland and 
Vernagu, nearly 7% ; Athelston, 5% ; Le Bone Florence of Rome, 4^% ; Sir 
Amadas, 4% and 3% (the versions printed by Robson and Weber respectively) ; 
Sege of Melayne, 2\% ; Eglamour, 2% ; Sir Cleges and Sir Gowther, no 
variations {op. cit., pp. xix-xx). 

10 With this accords the paucity of rhymes that he finds to make up his 



Metre. Rhyme. 



B. Rhyme. 



The author's rhymes show the following peculiarities : 

1 . The accent is shifted to the ultima : (a) in French words 
rhyming together; 1 (b) in French words rhyming with English; 2 
(c) in Euglish words rhyming together. 3 

2. Assonance suffices : (a) m and n ; 4 (b) nd and ng; 5 (c) d 
and t ;° (d) t and k ; 7 (e) f and b. s 

3. There is one clear case of imperfect vowel rhyme. Emare 9 
(1023) rhymes with he (1026) story (1029) Egarye (1032) glorye 
(1035). However the names should he spelled, y still rhymes 
with e in this instance. 

The rhyme -ynge, -ende is doubtful. Stanza 7 (11. 75—78—81 — 
84) is possibly a patchwork of two (cf. p. xxxii, n. 5, below). If 
11. 445-46 and 448-49 rhyme together, stanza 38 belongs to the 
stricter type, and 11. 510-11 and 514-15,11. 559-60 and 562-63 
rhyme together. 1 incline to think that this was the case, in that 
the assonance was admitted, alternative y and e forms existed for 
some of the words, 10 and later on, e. g. in Bale's Kynge Johan y 
and e rhymed together (cf. 11. 719, 879, 1198, 1970, 2208, 2238). 
But for another possibility, see note on 1. 793. 



stricter stanzas. Rhymes to none repeated in 6 stanzas ; to Jrynge, in 5 ; Jjore 
and knyjt, in 4 ; grete, be, and honour, in 2 each ; hye, day, ys, and woo are 
nsed once. 

1 Vanyte (105) Crvstyante (108) ; emperour (25) towre (26), etc. 

2 Fayiy (104) hyg'h (103) ; spycerye (853) hastylye (854), etc. 

3 Bygynnyng (16) kyng (17), gretlye (997) by (998); lie^emies (109) lees 
(110) ; lady (197) stye (196), wo77imon (443) anon) (442), show an unstressed 
syllable rhyming with a stressed. Studyynge (283) sowenynge (284), rychely 
(517) hastyly (518), wommon (427) Crystendom (428), two unstressed syllables 
together. 

4 Nome (27) none (30). This occurs 14 times. 

5 Lond (664) stro?ige (665). Cf. also 639-42-45-48. It is possible that 
-ynke rhymes with -yng ; spendyng (271, 592) drynke (272, 593) ; but the 
lines are short. Cf. note on 11. 271-72. 

6 Blede (552) lete (549), swete (546) strete (543). 

7 Loke (1014) bote (1011) fote (1017) sote (1020) ; gate (828) make (825) 
take (822) sake (819). 

8 Lyfe (222) wyfe (22S) sy]>e (225) swyde (219). 

9 Emarye (840) fre (831) le (834) powste (837) suggest that the author 
intended Emare, the form usually found ; Egare (360) ferly (351) lady (354) 
dye (357) suggest that he intended Egarye (found 704 rhyming with y, and 
810 where Emare is meant) although Egare (esgarec) is the correct form. See 
p. xxix below. 

10 Notably, hynde, unlrynde, wynde, fiend, viend, fynde ; the other forms 
I do not know. 



Metre. Rhythm. xxi 

C. Ehtthm. 

The general effect, even allowing for corruptions of the text, is 
rough. Short lines can sometimes be rectified by the hypothesis 
of a lost -c ; long lines, by omission of redundant or explanatory 
words or phrases. But there remain many verses that cannot be 
made to follow closely a strict iambic ideal. 

These departures cannot be numbered accurately, inasmuch as 
there are often several ways of reading a line ; but certain general 
principles of variation may be noted. 

1. The first syllable of the first foot is lacking, the line begin- 
ning with a stress. This is true of about one-fourth of the total 
number of lines. 1 

Within the line there is no clear case that such an omission is 
warranted, although to avoid this conclusion it is sometimes 
necessary to emend where no obvious corruption exists. 2 

2. Instead of x^- we find xxA. I counted about 50 cases in the 
first foot, 17 in the last, 10 in the second, and 14 in the third. 
These numbers admit of considerable variation, but the principle 
holds that the practice is by far the most abundant in the first 
foot. 3 

3. There are also about a hundred cases 4 in which elision is 
necessary, or something like O.E. resolved stress prevails. As 
examples of the blurring or elision of vowels, may be given : In 
mony a dyuerse londe (15), Syr Artyus was hys n6me (27) ; And 
speke we of \>e em-peroiir (72) ; 5 of the tendency to run syllables 
together, especially in -yl, -en, -er (-ur, -yr), -ow, -eth : Wyth 
menske and mychyl honour (69) ; In heuen -wyth hym fat we 
may be (11); Lorde, lette neiW such sorow a-ryce (260); Now 
kometh \>e emperour of pryse (985). 6 

4. There are different arrangements of stresses. Occasionally 
the stressed syllable precedes the unstressed, as : Certys, bys ys a 

1 I counted 258 lines ; but the number is more, rather than less. 

2 There are a few seeming instances of what Saintsbury calls "pause-feet" 
(History of English Prosody, London, 1906, I, 83) ; but most of these can 
easily be emended. Cf. 11. 181, 195, 200, 280, 433, 436, 453, 461, 495, 514, 
691, 692, 715, 856. 

3 Where more than two unstressed syllables occur, the sense usually shows 
that the line is corrupt. 

4 I counted 94. 

5 Cf. 11. 81, 84, 86, 183, 310, 482, 596, etc. 

6 Cf. 11. 187, 208, 220, 230, 252, 322, 324, 335, 336, etc. 



xxii Style. Vocabulary. 

wykked kase (647). 1 Again, we find xX|J_x, a form which suggests 
a survival of the O.E. Type C, as : He hadde hut oh chvld in hys 
lyue (43); In alle Ciystyanto (108); That deed shiilde she 
be (267). 2 

In these data, appears the popular and English character of the 
poem, in contradistinction to the French classical influences of 
which it shows hut little sign. 

Aside from the general framework of the rhythm-scheme, I 
believe that the author worked largely by a metrical instinct in 
which the O.E. tradition survived, so that his ear was not offended 
by the free manipulation of stresses which the poem shows. 3 

§ 5. STYLE. 
A. Vocabulary. 

The limitations of the author's vocabulary are best shown by a 
comparison with Gower's and Chaucer's versions of the same story. 
Emare in 1035 lines uses 802 words; Gower in 1014 lines, 945 
words; Chaucer in 1029 lines 1265 words — showing half again as 
large a vocabulary. The proportion of romance words in Chaucer 
is approximately 30%; in Gower, 26%; in Emare only 19%. 

These two facts bear out the popular origin of the poem. 

Of adjectives, Emare contains 88, 44% of these occurring only 
once, the highest number of repetitions of any one word being 
40; Gower uses 58 adjectives, only 7% occurring but once, the 
highest number of repetitions being 15; Chaucer has 127 adjectives, 
63% being found only once, and the highest number of repetitions 
being 21. 

The difference in the character of the adjectives used is 
illuminating. Gower's Avords are the most colourless, being almost 
entirely concerned with the moral quality of the thing. Hence, 
he uses great, glad, false, good, and worthy most frequently, and 
his nearest approach to the concrete is : bare, bloody, pale, naked 
(ship). Chaucer shows more appeal to the senses, as in : cold, 
dry, salt, bitter (figurative), pale, bloody, sheen, dark (figurative); 
and to the emotions, as in : woful, fatal, wretched, tender, cruel, 

1 I noted a number of cases that might he so read, but in many of them 
the accent of the word is uncertain, or the line admits of scansion in another 
way. Cf. however 11. 31, 104, 168, 261, 413, 415, 488, 605, etc. 

2 Cf. 11. 43, 47, 112, 156, 186, 201, 233, 294, etc. 

3 This, as far as it goes, accords with Saintsbury's doctrine of English 
rhythm (loc. cit.). 



Style. Alliteration. xxiii 

cursed, weary, etc. In Emare, while most of the adjectives occur 
repeatedly in all the 6- and 12-line stanza romances, 1 there is rather 
more sense-appeal than in Chaucer, hut much less appeal to the 
emotions. For example we find : white, hlue (meaning dark), gold, 
azure,- bright, sheen, pale, wan, clear, glistering, salt, delicious, 
cold, silken; but of words appealing immediately to the emotions 
nothing stronger than : lovesome. 

Of adverbs, Emare has 28, Gower 17, and Chaucer 32. Here 
again the same differences appear. It is rather curious that in all 
three, words showing speed should be most used : Gower has : 
suddenly (6 times) ; fast (4); Chaucer: shortly (6); Emare: hastily 
(5). Aside from these, Gower shows the same dryness and Chaucer 
the same emotional appeal; Emare is less rich in adverbs than in 
adjectives. Among those most used are : courteously, sweetly 
(swete, sote), specially and verament. 

Emare is singularly bare of figures, containing only seven similes: 
white as whale's bone, as lily-flower, as flower, as flower on hill, as 
foam; bright as summer's day; lean as a tree; and two cases of 
synecdoche : salt foam for sea, white chin for beautiful face. 3 

B. Alliteration. 

Alliteration in Emare is an important device of style. It is 
found in about 200 lines, two words usually being so connected, 
but occasionally three 4 and even four. 5 

To a less noticeable extent, alliteration serves to connect two 
lines, two, 6 three, 7 even four words s being so used. 

Where the alliteration passes beyond the limits of the line, the 
words do not seem to stand in any definite relationship to one 

1 Such as great (40 times), fair (39), rich (17), bright (14), fre (13), noble, 
seemly, sweet (each 12), etc. 

2 L. 113. Gold refers also to the material, and perhaps azure means lapis 
lazuli. The whole passage (11. 88-168) containing the list of precious stones, 
is full of colour, but the effect is due to the nouns. 

3 LI. 33, 66, 205 ; 946, 729 ; 818 ; 192, 438 ; 365 ; 835 ; 924. 

4 In 11 cases. 5 In 1. 29 only. 

6 Especially 11. 340-41-42, 376-77, 427-28, 487-88, 541-42, 833-34, 848- 
49, 923-24, 1010-11. I counted about 40 possible cases in all ; but in many 
the effect was so slight that it may well have been accidental. 

7 Cf. 11. 83-84, 218-19, 314-15, 365-66, 497-98, 572-73, 611-12, 646-47, 
737-38, 779-80. 

8 Cf. 11. 20-21, 170-71, 193-94, 227-28, 604-5, 647-48, 766-67, 887-88. 
Here nearly all the chief words alliterate. In 11. 586-88, three alliterative 
letters are spread over three lines ; but it is difficult to say how far this was 
a conscious device of style. 



xxiv Style. Alliteration. 

another; within the line, their connections may be classified as 
follows : 

(1) Noun and adjective: 1 And gode garnettes hy-twene (156). 

(2) Adjective with (a) chief or (b) secondary word of modifying 
phrase: 2 (a) Was goclely vn]mr gare (198); (l>) Whyte as whales 
bone (33). 

(3) Two words (a) nouns, (b)- adjectives, or (c) verbs in the 
same construction: 3 (a) That made both see and sonde (18); (b) 
Of a lady fayr and fre (22) ; (c) And alle ]>at shade dele and 
dyghte (3). 

(4) Verb with (a) chief, (b) secondary word of modifying 
phrase: 4 (a) As I here synge in songe (24); (b) Wyth sory herte 
she songe hyt a-slepe (662). 

(5) Verb with noun as (a) subject, (6) object : 5 (a) The kynges 
loue on her was lent (404); (b) And ledde hys lyf yn weddewede 
(77). 

(6) Verb and adverb: 6 Such sorow was here 3arked pre (329). 

(7) Noun with (a) chief or (b) secondary word of modifying 
phrase: 7 (a) Thorow ]>e grace of God yn trone (680): (b) In pat 
robe of ryche ble (644). 

(8) Nouns directly modifying another noun: 8 Of Baby lone J>e 
sowdan sowne (158). 

(9) Noun with chief word of dependent clause: 9 The stones pat 
yn ]>ys cloth stonde (116). 

(10) Verb with predicate adjective: He wax alle pale and 
wanne (771). 10 

(11) Words not related directly: 11 And my$to not fynde pat 
lady fre (308). 

From this analysis it appears that alliteration is a vital and 
fundamental part of the author's mode of thought; and that as it 
is used to connect words in almost every conceivable relation in the 

1 37 cases. 

2 29 with chief word ; 8 with secondary ; 37 altogether. 

3 14 cases of nouns ; 8 of adjectives ; 7 of verbs ; 29 altogether. 

4 18 with chief word ; 1 with secondary ; 19 in all. 

5 6 times as subject ; 17 as object ; once with a predicate adjective ; 24 in 
all. 6 15 times. 

7 12 times with chief ; 2 with secondary ; 14 in all. 

8 11 cases. 9 8 cases. 10 No other case. 

11 Only 5 other cases where the alliterative effect is unmistakable. As : pe 
worde shulde sprywge fer and wyde (256). And she s(h)ewed sylke werke yn 
hour (730). He was resseuyed and rychely dy}t (578). The lady and >e 
lytylle chylde (649). Wyth menske and mychyl honour (69). 



Style. Alliteration. xxv 

sentence, it thereby maintains its place as the more natural element 
in the language, upon which the rhyme-scheme has been imposed. 

Looked at from the point of view of content, the greater part of 
these alliterative expressions consists of the conventional phrases 
used repeatedly in all the 6- and 12-line stanza romances. In a 
few cases the expressions are peculiar to Emare, while there are 
perhaps 50 more conventional lines, not in their present form 
alliterative. This number must be slightly reduced, in that some 
of these lines have alliterative equivalents from which they may 
have been derived. 1 But, on the whole, the alliterative expressions 
represent the bulk of the conventionalisms, as no doubt it was the 
alliterative connection that attached them to the memory. 

As to character and content, 2 the alliterative expressions may 
be classified according to (a) participation in the same idea, i. e. 
derivation from the same root: 3 As I here synge in songe (24); (&) 
extension or qualification, i. e. further definition of the same idea : 4 
That semely ys of syght (9) ; (c) association of like ideas : 5 Bothe 
by stye and strete (543); (d) differentiation, by association, of 
contrasting ideas: 6 Bothe yn wo and wele (573). 

The fifty lines or thereabouts which are conventional in character 
but cannot be traced to an alliterative origin, may be classified as 
follows : 

(a) References to source; 7 (b) assurances of truth : s In trwe 
story as y say (544); (c) strengthening of previous assertion : (1) 
by denying the contrary: 9 With-oute ony lettynge (843); (2) by 
repetition in different terms : 10 Mencallehyt heuen lyghte (6) ; (3) 
by further detail: 11 In alle maner of thynge (75); (d) allusions to 
God's will: 12 As hyt was Goddys wylle (327); (e) statement of 
time: 13 On ]>e morn when h//t was day (541); (/) a passing 

1 As : Semely to be-holde (sene), 942 ; wepte (grette) and 3af hem ylle, 
778 ; flesh and bone (fell), 735 ; " wesh and seten don (wenten) to mete, 
218." 

2 Kolbing's divisions (Amis and Amiloun, pp. lxvi-lxx) do not seem 
mutually exclusive ; so I have preferred to classify separately according to 
structure and to idea. 

3 Rare. Cf. 11. 405, 465. 

4 Very common. Cf. 11. 96, 153, 198, 216, 246, 303, 366, 507, etc. 

5 Fairly common. Cf. 11. 3, 42, 174, 228, 474, 495, 600, 804. 

6 Rare. Cf. 1. 18. 

7 In Emare usually alliterative. Cf. 11. 216, 405. LI. 162, 1029 are con- 
ventional in French rather than in English. 

8 Elsewhere alliterative. Cf. 11. 396. 144, 153, 381. 9 No other instance. 
10 Cf. 11. 30, 36, 111. u Cf. 11. 51, 108, 123, etc. 

12 Cf. 11. 450, 480, 675. 13 No other examples in Emare. 



xxvi Style. Repetition. 

description of a character: 1 He was curtays in alle pyng 1 (40); (g) 
a customary gesture: 2 And sette hym on hys kne (87); (h) a 
customary act: Messengeres forth he sent 3 (190); (i) expressions 
of sympathy : 4 And pat was gret pyte (276); (J) strongly associated 
ideas: 5 In halle ny yn bowres (873); (k) strongly contrasted 
ideas: 6 Bothe to olde and to ^ynge (41); (I) figures of speech: 7 
And whythe as lylye flowre (66). 

It appears at once that these do not belong to the story, but 

itially to the machinery of the poem. 



C. IttfPETITIOX. 

Emare is peculiar, even among romances of its class, for the 
large proportion of repetitions that it contains. "Whenever the idea 
recurs the phrase, line, sentence, stanza, or even group of stanzas, is 
repeated, with only slight necessary changes. 

It is interesting to note that among lines which almost exactly 
repeat others: 45 are used twice; 10, three times; 8 2, four times; 9 
1 is used five times ; 10 one six times. 11 This makes a total of 80 
lines copied after 59 others. Among approximate repetitions : 52 
are used twice; 14, three times; 12 3, four times; 13 1 is used five 
times. 14 This total is of 93 lines based on 70 others. 

It appears, then, that 173 lines, or about 16£% of the poem, 
could be omitted almost without reduction of vocabulary. 

Further, whole passages describing similar episodes show strong 
resemblance in structure and phrasing. Such descriptions are : 

1. The four corners of the cloth. 15 

2. Love at first sight. 10 

3. Lamentation (four times). 17 

4. Experiences in the boat. ls 

1 Cf. 11. 30, 36, 39, 45, 64, 379, 513, 724. - Cf. 11. 778, 893. 

3 Cf. 11. 180, 1027. 4 Cf. 11. 336, 648, 684. 

5 Cf. 11. 300, 384, 390. 6 Cf. 11. 65, 462, 571, 666, 863, etc. 

7 Cf. 11. 192, 205, 729. 

8 Cf. 11. 9, 48, 171 ; 217, 865, 889 ; 325, 673, 721, etc. 

9 LI. 40, 64, 379, 724 ; 41, 64, 380, 725. 

111 LI. 290, 556, 604, 646, 772. u LI. 93, 135, 141, 423, 471, 486. 

12 Cf. 11. 3, 42, 826 ; 204, 937, 1021 ; 331, 337, 679 ; 336, 648, 684, etc. 

13 Cf. 11. 555, 763, 882, 925 ; 28, 755, 873, 899 ; 207, 363, 453, 708. 

14 LI. 250, 366, 612, 736, 988. 

15 Cf. 11. 121-32 ; 133-44 ; 145-56 ; 157-68. 16 LI. 220-31 ; 397-408. 

17 LI. 280-300 ; 547-64 ; 604-12 ; 769-83. 

18 LI. 313-24 and 325-36 ; 649-60 and 673-84. 



Style. Repetition. xxvii 

5. The rescue by Kadore and by Iurdan. 1 

G. The messenger's reception (twice) by the old queen. 2 

7. The King's resolve to do penance and the Emperor's. 3 

8. Segramour's instructions upon the coming of the King and 
of the Emperor. 4 

9. The rejoicing over Emare's restoration to her husband and to 
her father. 5 

Tile double structure of the poem accounts for a certain amount 
of parallelism; but this is so much greater than in any other 
version, that I judge the author to have had no close acquaint- 
ance with his original; but to have known this only in general 
outline and to have been thrown upon his own resources for 
details. 

I). Sentence Structure. 

The sentence structure and phrasing are uncommonly rough 
and careless, and no doubt often corrupted in transmission. 
The paratactic sentence prevails throughout, only the simplest 
clauses of time, place and comparison being subordinated. 6 When 
transitional expressions are found, they are crude and abrupt. 7 As 
in the ballads, speeches are introduced without mention of the 
speaker ; s and indirect discourse is changed to direct in the same 
passage, without indication. 9 The subject is very often repeated in 
different forms, in a manner suggesting the progression of an Old 
English sentence; 10 while, on the other hand, it is omitted in lists 
of verbs where it is needed. 11 The connection is extremely loose, 
that being often omitted ; 12 and sentences are regularly made up of 
several short clauses with different subjects. 13 A few special 
grammatical peculiarities will be given in the notes. Here again 
the character of a popular poem by a market-place minstrel is 
maintained. 

I LI. 340-84 ; 685-732. 2 LI. 514-17 and 525-35 ; 574-86. 

3 LI. 817-28 ; 949-960. 

4 LI. 904-09 and 916-24 ; 973-S4 ; 991-96 ; 1009-20. 

5 LI. 625-36 ; 1009-20. 

B The pronouns /rho and which are not found at all. 

7 Usually: Now leue we . . . and speke we, or its equivalent. Cf. 11. 70- 
72, 310-12, 742-44, 946-47. 

8 Cf. 11. 172-77. 9 Cf. 11. 520-22 ; 595-97 ; 715-20 ; 820-22. 
10 LI. 52-53, .85-86, etc. 

II LI. 201, 271-73, 451-53 ; 763-64. etc. 

12 LI. 232, 394-96, 403-4 etc. 13 Cf. 11. 328-36, 502-4, etc. 



xxviii Author and Dote. Immediate Source. 

§ G. AUTHOR AND DATE. 

The terminus ad quern for the date is 1446; a quo, 1350, 
inasmuch as the -e as a factor in the verse has almost disappeared. 1 
The absence of archaic forms suggests a post-Chaucerian date ; and 
1400 is probably nearer the fact than is 1350. 

The author was neither courtly nor learned, but was doubtless 
a wandering minstrel, who sang in the market-place. 2 He seems 
to have been a Yoikshireman, perhaps of the moor district, work- 
ing up a local legend, in part, however, derived from a French,, 
hence not popular, source. 

§ 7. IMMEDIATE SOURCE. 

Emare is one of seven Middle English poems 3 that claim 
derivation from a lay of Britain. In two cases, Lai le Freine and 
Launfat, the original is extant, while the general agreement in 
character of the seven, renders it probable that all had similar 
sources. All are short (500-1200 lines), correspond to the 
description of a lay in Sir Orfeo, 4 and in form are suited to 
musical accompaniment. 5 

In the case of Emare, the evidence for a French original, 
whether lay or romance, is considerable. 

1. The names are French: Cesyle, Cysyle; Galys; 6 Artyus; 7 
Dame Erayne; 8 Segramour, Segramowre; 9 Kadore; 10 Iurdan; 11 

1 It is negligible in the proportion of three to one ; and is occasionally 
inorganic. 

- Instead of the usual references to listeners in the hall, we have 1. 19, 
with its possible implication of the idea of a moving throng. 

3 Sir Orfeo (11. 1-22), Lai le Freine (II. 1-26), Sir Gowther (11. 28-29, 751, 
753), The Erl of Tolous (11. 1219-21); Launfal (11. 4-5), the only case in 
which Britain is not specified ; Chaucer's Franklin's Tale (11. 709-15) and 
Emare (11. 1030-32). 4 LI. 1-22. 

5 Cf. Emare; 11. 24, 319 ; Guig»mar (11. 885-86), Chierrefoil (11. 112-13) by 
Marie de France ; Le Lai de L'Epervier (11. 230-32, Romania, 1878. p. 9), 
Boon (11. 1-4, 287-88, Romania, 1879, pp. 61, 64). 

6 For Gales or Galice ? See note on 1. 338 below. Both forms are French. 

7 Artus is the common form in French. In Ipomedon, one scribe writes 
Artus for Atreus (cf. Ward, Catalogue of Romances, I, 732) ; but here Arthur 
is clearly meant. 

8 Igrayne or Elayne 1 Both French. 

9 Cf. especially Perceval le Gallois (5598 ff., 13944); Erec et Enidc (1733, 
2231, 2238, 2250), Beaujeu's Li L'iaus Dcsconneus (87 '9, 5905, 6020) ; Malory's 
Morte Arthur (ed. Somer, List of Names) ; Froissart's Mdliador (ed. Longnon, 
Index) ; Claris et Laris (ed. Alton, Index). The lost German romance, 
Saigrcmor, was seemingly based upon a French original. 

10 The equivalent in French romances of the Celtic Cadoc (F. Lot, Romania, 
xxx, 11-13). It occurs in Perceval (12964 ff.) ; in Erec (4515, 4545, 4574) ; 
in Li Eiatcs Dcsconneus as Cadoc (5694, 5702, 5708). Cf. also Geoffrey of 



Immediate Source. xxix 

Tergaunte; 1 Abro; 2 Ydoyne and Amadas; 3 Florys and Blawnche- 
flour; 4 Trystrani and Isowde; 5 Emare ; Egare. 

2. The form Segramowres (876) rhyming with kowrs (867) 
honowres (870) howres (873) is an old French nominative singular. 
The direct quotation may have been taken literally from the original 

3. The names Emare, Egare, clearly indicate a French source. 
Emare seems to stand for Emarie (Emarye occurs once) 6 from 
French esmarie (afflicted, troubled) ; Egare is from the French 
esgar&e (outcast). 7 But I cannot think that the English poet 
intended to use emarie in the sense given. Usually the word is 
associated with esgaree, while here a contrast, if anything, is indi- 
cated. 8 The name which I believe the minstrel had in mind is 
Emere, 9 which occurs as La Blonde Esmeree, in Li Biaus Des- 
conneus. 10 This means pure, refined (as gold), endowed with rare 
qualities. 12 The e might easily have become a by analog}' to 
Egare with which Emare frequently rhymes. 

', Layamon, the Thornton Morte Arthure, Claris et Laris, Anse'is 
de Cartage, etc. 

11 The hero of the French romance Jourdains de Blaivies. It occurs in 
■Geoffrey of Monmouth, in the Huth Merlin and in Malory. (See p. xxxvii, 
note 6.) 

1 See note on 1. 85 below. The name is certainly of French origin. 

2 Abra occurs in Amadis of Greece (Part II, ch. 1), of which the earliest 
extant form is French. On the ultimate origin of the word, see note on 1. 57 
below. 

3 The chief characters of a French romance of which no English version 
is known, although they are repeatedly mentioned in English books. 

4 The chief characters of a widely popular French romance. 

5 The spelling is much as in the Northern Sir Tristrem, the Cursor 
Mundi, and in Malory ; but the oldest extant form of the story is French. 

6 L. 840, but the rhymes are: fre, le, powste. However, in 11. 1023, 
1032, Emare and Egarye rhyme with he, storye, glorye ; and in 11. 1006-7, 
they rhyme together ; hence the poet knew no distinction of an original e, ie. 
See p. xx above. 

7 Cf. Suchier, Ocuvres de Beaumanoir (Soc. des. Anc. Tex. Fr.), 1884, 
p. xlv. 

8 Cf. 11. 22-23, 47-48, 50-51. Such a contrast is suggested in the chanson 
de geste, Herpin de Bourges, based upon another version of this same story, in 
which the heroine Joyeuse calls herself Tristouse during her exile (Suchier, op. 
•■/■'., p. lxxxiii). Both words are so common that it is perhaps unnecessary 
to give instances of their use. Among Godefroi's quotations is: "Triste et 
dolente et esmarie." The word esgaree is found especially in romances of this 
group as La Manekine, La Belle Helene de Constantinople. La Comtesse 
d'Anjou. also in Berte as Grans Pie's; and there seems little doubt that the 
poet took it directly from his original. See also note on 1. 1032 below. 

9 This occurs as a man's name in Le Bone Florence of Borne; but is 
pronounced Emere, rhyming with clere, dere, etc. The French Esmert(s) is 
found in Aucassin et Nicolctc, Bauduin de Sebourc, Mainct (Gautier, Les 
Epope~es Francaises, Paris, 1S69, III, 38), and elsewhere. 

10 LI. 363S, 3S04, 3842, 4963, 5466, 5793, 6002, 6053, 6066. 
12 According to Godefroi. 



xxx Immediate Source. 

4. Probably the title of the source is indicated in 11. 103U-32 : 

"Thys ys on of Brytayne layes, 
That was vsed by olde dayes, 
Men callys ' playn ]>e garye.' " 

The last line is clearly corrupt. Emendations 1 that suggest 
themselves are: " PIaijn[t] d'Egarye" (cf. 1. 314), or " Playnt 
Egarye." 2 Whether playnt has become substituted for the usual 
lax, through misunderstanding of the character of this kind of 
composition, or has actually been transferred from a lyric on the 
theme that existed in the time of the lai and the various romances,, 
is a point for conjecture. 3 

5. Without laying too much stress on the curious rather than 
numerous words of French origin, 4 we may note a few among them 
which suggest direct transference, such as : acyse, crapaictes, pery- 
dotes, possibly fayry (in the sense of fairy-work) and vanyte, the 
forms testymonyeth and Segramoicres ; and perhaps the phrases 
a-fyne and eler of vyce. 

Altogether, there can be little doubt that the immediate source 
of the minstrel was French. A further question is, whether the 
English version is a more or less close rendering, which would 
probably be the case if it was a lay, or a condensation and re- 
telling in outline, of the story, which would have been necessary 
if the author had worked upon the basis of a romance. 

The French version must have been anterior to La Manehine 
and the original of Mai und Beaflor and Enikel's Weltbuch; hence 
cannot be later than the first half of the thirteenth century. That, 
it is not older than this date appears, if in no other way, by the 
passage concerning the robe (82-180). That this was in the original 
is clear not only from allusions to it in several early versions; 5 but 

1 Suchier translates "On l'appelle simplcment la Garie (ou l'Egaree ?) " ^ 
but the definite article is not so used in English (op. cit., p. xlv). 

2 On the interchange of d and th, J>, and t, th, cf. p. x above. Tea 
Brink derives the name Degarre from d Egare (ed. Brandl, 1899, p. 293). If 
this holds, the word must have come from some title containing de, perhaps 
Lai d'Egarrd (so Degrevant from Agra vain or Egrevain). 

3 Emare is not a plaint or complaint (although " der Buheler " calls it a 
cleglichc mer, Die Kbnigstocldcr von Frankrcich, 11. 1769, 1553, etc.). But this 
form, in the 13th century, was popular in French, and in the 14th was made 
fashionable in England by Chaucer and his school. In this connection, it is. 
interesting to observe that the so-called " Wife's Complaint" in its matter is 
exactly a " Playnft] d'Egarye." 

4 About 25% of the words in the glossary ; 19% of the entire number. 

5 Notably in La Manehine, Enikcl, La Comtcssc d'Anjou and Eistoria del! 
Hey de ffungria, although it is mentioned in many. 



Immediate Sourer. xxxi 

especially from a comparison between Emare and Mai unclBeaflor: 

"ein samit la^urbla (cf. Em, ryche golde and 

asowi*, 1. 113). 

verre braht U3 Persia (cf. Em } 109, 116-17). 
der was schone geheret 

gro3 VH3 dar an gekeret (cf. Em, 118-19). 

von meisterlichen handen. (cf. Em, 111). 
e3 wurden in alien landen 

nie gesehen so richin kleit, (cf. Em, 107-8). 

dar obe ein richer mandel 
geworbt von tiurer koste. 

manec edel stein druf gloste, (cf. Em, 89-90, 110-1). 
die hoher kraft niht waren vri. 

edele borton von Arabi," etc. (col. -40, 11. 29-35 and 

col. 41, 11. 1-4). 

The " samit la^urbla" from Persia and the "golde and asowr" 
from Babylon must refer to the same cloth. A suggestion as to 
the date of the French original lies in the detail not found else- 
where that it was a gift to the Emperor Arty us from the King of 
Sicily. As the description seems to refer to a particular robe, the 
allusion to its origin is probably not without basis. 1 In 1191, 
Richard Coeur de Lion in Sicily was visited by Tancred, king of 
that country, and presented with many magnificent gifts, including 
pannis sericis. 2 That these were of Saracen work seems almost 
certain, in that the Mussulman weaving and embroidery, always 
famous, had received a great impulse under the Norman Kings 
during the twelfth century. 3 As the tale of the demonic wife was 
early attached to the legend of Richard Cceur de Lion, 4 an allusion 
to Tancred 5 is not so amazing as it seems. According to Philippe 

1 Moreover, the cloths made in Palermo answer to the description in 
Emare" (88-168): " tessuti con bell'artifizio a figure di animale e di piante, 
rilevati ad oro ed a colori diversi." On figures and portraits, cf. Michel, 
Recherchcs sur le Commerce, la Fabrication et V Usage cles Etoffes de Soie, d'Or, 
et a" Argent, Paris, 1852-54, especially II, 354-55. 

2 Related by the contemporary chronicler known as Benedict of Peter- 
borough (Rolls Series), 1867, II, 159. 

3 Cf. Amari, Storia dei Musulmani in Sicilia, Firenze, 1854-72, III, 
800-1, and Michel, op. tit., I, 73 f. 

4 The English romance (circ. 1300), a translation from a lost French poem, 
represents her as coming in a magic ship (cf. the tale of the second Offa). 

5 Tcrgaunte from Tancred is as possible as many other confusions that 
are known to have happened, as, for instance, Balan and Laban. The usual 
form of the first name is Tervaga(u)nt or in English Termagant ; Tancred, in 
French, is sometimes Tangre, which, perhaps unfamiliar in 14th century 
English, might have been twisted into Tergan, Tcrgan[t], with some memory 
of the better-known Tervagant. 



xxxii Immediate Source. Origins. 

Mouskes, Fulkes or Foucon d'Anjou married a beautiful demon 
whom, while hunting, he found by a fountain in a wood a (cf. the 
tale of the first Offa). It is a fact that his daughter Cecile married 
Tangre d'Andioce, 2 ancestor of the Tancred whom Eichard knew. 
Here are elements enough for confusion. 3 

Considering, together with this episode, the names which 
suggest an origin later than the work of Chretien . de Troyes, and 
perhaps than that of Eenauld de Beaujeu, 4 I judge that the 
immediate original of Emare arose between 1200 and 1250. 

I incline also to think that it was, if a lay, at least much longer 
than the English, and that the minstrel knew it imperfectly or only 
in outline. On this point there is but little evidence, one way or 
the other ; but the abruptness with which the account of the robe 
is thrust into the narrative suggests that something has been 
omitted for purposes of condensation, 5 the presence of many 
curious details and scraps strongly suggestive of French, 6 taken 
with the large per cent, of repetitions in which scarcely a word is 
■changed, suggest an attempt to fill out the outline of a larger work, 
with imperfect knowledge of its details. 7 

§ 8. OETGINS. 
The ramifications of this tale extend so far back and so widely, 
that the extensive researches of Frof. Suchier, Dr. Gough and 

1 Chronique Rimie (13th century), 11. 18720-809. 

2 Op. cit. ; 1. 18363. 

3 Curiously enough the name of Arthur is associated with the episode. 
Benedict says : " Kex autem Angliae dedit ei (i. e. Tancred) gladium optimum 
Arcturi, nobilis quondam regis Britonum, quem Britones vocaverunt Galibur- 
num " (loc. cit.). 

4 Quoted early in the 13th century. 

5 Cf. 11. 78-79 and 187-88. Between 11. 78 and 79, the subject is changed 
completely, from a description of the Emperor's character, which might lead 
up very well to 1. 188, to an episode not in any way connected with the story 
as it stands in Emari. Both the lack of connection and the rhymes suggest 
that at least six lines may have been omitted. Again, there are signs of 
corruption in 11. 187-88, the metre of the second being spoiled to explain the 
abrupt change of subject. Since the robe evidently belongs in the narrative, 
I must suppose that its proper relation has been lost as I suggest above. There 
are other marks of condensation and alteration, such as in 11. 232-40, the 
embassy to the Pope and his ready assent without inducement of any sort ; 
11. 799-804, the exile of the old queen, which is peculiar to this version, and 
replaces the long account of her punishment which is usually found ; 11. 817- 
22, when the King does penance for a sin that he had not committed. Possibly 
in the original, as in Enikel's account, he ordered her to be set adrift. 

11 Especially speeches and dramatic details of scenes. 

7 The allusion to an oral source in 1. 319 (and possibly inl. 24) if it is not 
purely conventional, may refer only to the fact that other forms of the tale 
Avere being carried about. 



Origins. English Versions. xxxiii 

•others, 1 have by no means exhausted the subject. I can contribute 
only a little more to the results already obtained and hope to 
■continue the investigation. 2 

To the eighteen 3 mediaeval versions analyzed by Suchier, must 
be added at least two more : La Filla de TEmperador Contasti* 
(Catalan) and a play called Columpnarium (Latin). 5 

These twenty pieces, then, may be classified according to their 
place of origin as follows: Three in England, 12th— 15th centuries: 
Vita Offae Primi 6 (VI, 1195-1214, St. Albans, Latin); Chronique 
Anglo-Normande 1 by Nicholas Trivet (Tr, 1334-47, French); 
Emare (Em, about 1400, Yorkshire, English). 

Four in France, 13th-14th centuries: La Manehine by Philippe 
vie Eemy, Sire de Beaumanoir 8 (Man, about 1270, near Beauvais, 
French); La Comtesse d'Anjou by Jehan Maillart 9 (Anj, 1313-16, 
near Pontoise and Senlis, Normandy, French); Columpnarium™ 
(Co?, 14th century, (?) Avignon, (?) Latin); La Belle Ilelene de 
Constantinople, (HC, 1469, (?) Flanders, French). 11 

Three in Germany, 13th-15th centuries: Mai und Beajlor 1 ' 2 
(Mai, about 1260, Bavaria or Austria, (?) German) ; Die Konigstochter 
von Reussen, by Jansen Enikel or Enenkel 13 in his Weltbuch, or 
Universal Chronicle (En, 1277-1300, Vienna, German); Die 
Konigstochter rem Frankreich by Hans Von Biihel, or " der 
Buheler" 14 (Bull, 1401, Poppelsdorf, near Bonn, German). 

1 Suchier, op. cit., p. xxiii ft*. ; Gough, Constance Saga; for kindred folk- 
tales, Cox, Cinderella [Folk Lore Society), London, 1893, in addition to the 
works referred to by Suchier. 

2 In an edition of La Belle Helene de Constantinople. 

3 His No. 19 is a piece of sculpture that might represent Hung, 01, Vic. 
Cont or even HC. 

4 Published by Suchier, Romania, xxx, 519-38. Still other versions of 
the tale are announced to follow. 

5 Mentioned by Creizenach, Gcschichte des Neueren Dramas, Halle, 1893, 
I, 533-34 with note. Unpublished. The father is "Emolphus, rex Carillorum : " 
Phocis and Athens are among the scenes. 

e Ed. Wats, appendix to Chronica Majora of Matthew Paris, London, 
1640-39; also Originals and Analogues (Chauc. Soc. [1888], pp. 73-84). 
7 ( riginals and Analogues, pp. 2-70. 8 Ed. Suchier, op. cit. 

9 Unpublished. MSS. 765 and Nouv. acquis. 4531, at Paris. 

10 Apparently written for a member of the Colonna family. MS. Lat. 8163. 
Cf. Creizenach, loe. cit. 

11 Unpublished. This is apparently a recension of a much earlier romance, 
signed " Alexandry nianu propria," for "Loyse, Dame de Crequy," who died 
in 1469 (Lyons MS. 767). It contains much matter relating to the 15th 
century, and certain episodes seem to refer it definitely to the year mentioned. 
But I must reserve discussion of this point until I edit the text. 

12 Dictungcn des deutschen Mittrhdters, VII, Leipzig, 1S4S. 

ia Ed. Von der Hagen, Gesammtabenteur, II, 1S50," pp. 593-613. 
11 Ed. Merzdorf, Oldenburg, 1867. 

EMARE. C 



xxxiv Origins. English Versions. 

Seven in Italy, 14th-17th centuries: Ystoria Regis Franchorum 
et Filie in qua Adulterium Comitere Voluit 1 (Yst, written or copied 
in 1370, Latin); II Pecorone, Dies X, No. 1, by Giovanni Fioren- 
tino 2 (Pec, 1378, Dovadola, Italian); Novella della Figlia del Re 
di Dacia z (Dar, end of the 14th century, Italian); Miraculi de la 
Gloriosa Verzene Maria, 4 cap. XI (Mir, 1475, printed Vicenza, 
Italian) ; De Origine inter Gallon et Britannos Belli Historia by 
Bartolonieo Fazio 5 (Faz, before 1457, Naples, (?) Latin) ; Historia 
de la Reg iua Oliva, by Joannes Florentinus 6 (?) (01, 16th century, 
Italian); La Penta Manomozza in Basile's Pentamerone 7 (Pen, 
before 1637, Naples, Italian). 

Three in Spain, 14th-15th centuries: Historia del Reg de 
Hungria s (Hung, end of the 14th century, Catalan); Le Victoria} 
by Gutierre Diaz de Gamez 9 (Vic, from before 1435 to 1449, 
Spanish); La Filla de VEmperador Contasti m (Cont, 15th century, 
Catalan). 10 

This shows clearly the progress of the legend. Spreading from 
England, by the end of the 13th century it had passed through 
France and Germany, during the 14th century it reached Italy and 
Spain, died out in Spain in the 15th, but continued in Italy until 
the 17th; in the 14th also it was revived in England in English, 11 
but is not known to have persisted long after 1400. 12 

In tracing out the development of the tale, we find at once 

I Unpublished. MS. Lat. 8701 at Paris. - Ed. 1378. 
3 Ed. Wesselofsky, Pisa, 1866. 4 Ed. Vicenza, 1475. 

5 Ed. Camusat, Bibliolheca Giaconii, Paris, 1731. The copy in the British 
Museum is dated at Amsterdam and Leipzig, 1744, (cols. 893-902). 

6 The poem itself is unpublished, but the play based upon it has been 
edited by D'Ancona, Pisa, 1863, and included by him in his Sucre Rapprcsen- 
tazioni, Florence, 1872, III, 250 ff. 7 Ed. Liebrecht, Breslau, 1846. 

8 Ed. Bofarull y Mascaro, Documentos Literarios en Antigua Lengua Cata- 
lana, Barcelona, 1857, pp. 53-59. 

9 Ed. Lemcke, Bruchstiicke aus den noch ungedrucktcn Theilen da 
Vitorial von Gutierre Diez de Gaines, Marburg, 1865, p. 20 ; also translated 
into French by Counts de Circourt and de Puymaigre, Paris, 1867, Livre 
II, ch. 26, p. 258. 

10 Grouped according to language, 4 are Latin, VI, Yst, Col, Faz; 4 are 
French, Man, Anj, Tr, HC ; 3 German, Mai, En, Btih ; 5 Italian, Pec, Dae, 
Mir, Ol, Pen; 2 Catalan, 1 Spanish, Hung, Cont, Vic: 1 English, Em. 
Classified according to form, 6 are romances : Man, Anj, HC, Mai, Btih, Em ; 
6 are attempts to reduce romance material to history: VI, Yst, Faz, Tr, Vic 
(prose), and En (verse); 5 are novelle: Pec, Dae, Pen, Hung, Cont; 2 are 
dramas, Col, 01 ; one is a prose miracle, Mir. 

II Tr's French was quickly translated into English prose by an unknown 
writer, and into verse by Chaucer and Gower. 

12 These dates refer to the literary versions only, not to the folk-lore, in 
which it lives on in many countries. 



Origins. English Versions. xxxv 

numerous and important differences between V 1 on the one hand, 
aud Tr and Em on the other; also between VI, and Man, Mai and 
the original HG (*HC). It is impossible that V 1 should have 
developed into these other forms without important influence from 
outside. 

Taking first the English versions, we find the following 
fundamental differences : (1) the exposure is twice in the forest 
(VI) instead of twice on the sea (Tr, Em); (2) there are two 
children (VI), one child (Tr, Em); (3) they are cut to pieces and 
brought to life by a miracle, and the heroine is twice threatened 
with such a death and twice spared (VI); there is no such 
mutilation (Tr, Em); (I) they are protected by a hermit (VI), 
by a Eoman (Tr, Em); (5) the scene is entirely localized in 
England (VI), in part at Rome (Tr, Em). 

It seems probable that VI was written down largely from oral 
tradition in English, which may or may not have survived in definite 
poetical form. The only poem that might be related to it is the eighth 
century Wife's Complaint. 1 This alludes to two definite periods of 
exile with an interval between, to sorrow for separation from a 
husband, and to treachery on the part of " kinsmen " ; and the 
heroine seems to be dwelling in a cave in the forest. No names 
are given, and no children are mentioned; the circumstances of the 
double exile and the forest chiefly connect this epic fragment with 
VI.' 2 Aside from this, VI is the oldest known form of the 
legend. 

The first problem is to discover, if possible, the origin of the 
variations enumerated. Certain differences between Tr and Em 
can be explained on the basis of a different intermediary, Em 
claiming a " lay " as its original and being certainly derived from 
the French; Tr, "lez Aunciene cronikes de sessounz " or "lestoire 
de sessouns," 3 and showing signs of an English original. 4 

1 Cf. Old English Offa Saga in Modern Philology, June 1904, and January 
1905. 

'- But there is no strong evidence against their identity. Cf. 0. E. Offa 
Saga, Jan. 1905, p. 45 f. (reprint). Playn\f] d'Egarye is "The Exiled 
Woman's Complaint," cf. p. xx, with note 3, above. 

3 Originals and Analogues, p. 3. 

4 This is disputed ; but the English sentence on p. 19 seems to favour an 
immediate source in English not older than the 12th century. This, as Gough 
suggests {Constance Saga, pp. 21-22), may have been a French chronicle of 
Saxon history ; but one slight additional bit of evidence in favour of an 
English original has been overlooked. Tr says that the Saxons called Con- 
stance Couste (p. 41). But Couste is not Saxon. It can scarcely be derived 
from any other source than the pun in Li Dis de V Empereour Constant : 



xxxvi Origins. The Constantine Legend. 

An important cycle of legends, which has been recognized to 
touch that of the Outcast Wife at various points, is that of Con- 
stantine the Great (Const). 1 Inasmuch as the great majority of the 
versions agree in general outline with Tr and Em over against VI, 
I shall relate briefly the parallel account in Const and point out 
the coincidences in the notes. 

Helena, the daughter of a king or nobleman,- either goes to 
Eome on a pilgrimage, 3 or flees thither secretly for some reason, 4 
sometimes with a nurse or attendant, 5 and sometimes in disguise. 6 
Her child is born under different circumstances, but the parallel is 
close where the tale describes how she worked with her hands to 
support and educate the boy, who soon by his gifts attracted the 
love of all who knew him. 7 With the kidnapping of Constantine, 
the parallel is lost ; but it reappears in the account of the jewels 

" Et pour cou qu'il ot couste tant 
Li missent il a 11011 Coustant." (11. 235-36) 
] f Trivet had found the word couste in its proper context, he knowing French 
would never have fallen into the blunder that it was Saxon. On the other 
hand, if his Saxon authority had taken over the word without the pun, he, 
not associating it with any French source, might easily have assumed that it 
must be Saxon. This furnishes a bit of evidence for the association of the 
Constantine legend with the Outcast Wife cycle (cf. Romania, VI, 1877, pp. 
161-98, on the Constantine legend). 

1 Cf. Suchier, op. cit., p. lxxv, n. 1, and Graf, Roma nella Memoria c nelle 
Jmmaginazioni del Medio Evo, Torino, 1882-83, II, 46 ff. 

2 For a full account, see AVesselofsky, Romania, VI, 101-98 ; and Coen, 
Archivio della Socicta Romana di Utoria Patria, Roma, 1881, IV, 1-55, 
293-316, 535-61 ; V, 33-66, 489-541. 

3 In Pee, the heroine flees in pilgrim's dress ; in Coat, her explanation of 
her second exile is "e vaig en pelegrinatge (533)." 

i "Multi earn clam patriam fugisse affirmant " (Horstmaun, Nova Legenda 
Anglic, Oxford, 1901, II, 14). 

5 The nurse is prominent in HC, Mai, Anj, Yst, Dae, Em, Col. 

6 So in Pec, Faz, Dae. Once in Const she is disguised as a man (cf. 
Coen, Archivio, IV, 33 n. ); so in Yst and in Bilh (the beginning of the 
second flight). 

7 The lite of the mother and child in Rome agrees in many respects with 
Em, Tr, Mai, Man, En, Yst, Pec, Buh, 01, Faz, Cont ; and is traceable in 
HC and Dae (13). In Pen, the scene is changed but the circumstances are 
recognizable, as perhaps they are also, though not so clearly, in Anj. Mir 
follows V 1 in its total disagreement ; Vic does not contain the s3cond exile, 
and Col I have not seen. Most of these agree in allowing the lapse of many 
years (from 7 to upwards of 30) between the parting of husband and wife, and 
contain a description of the youth and education of the boy (Anj alone agrees 
with V 1 and Mir in leaving but a short time). 

In Man, the heroine is a housekeeper, in Bilh a servant, in HC a washer- 
woman and a beggar ; she also begs in Bilh and in Cont ; in Dae and Faz she 
is a nurse ; in Em a nurse and does beautiful embroidery ; in Anj, she does 
embroidery and teaches it during the first exile, and in the second depends 
upon charity. In Mai, En, Tr, Yst, 01, she is dependent upon charity ; in 
Pen she is the queen's maid during the first exile, and depends upon charity 
in the second. The attractiveness of the child is everywhere prominent. 



Origins. The Constantine Legend. xxxvii 

brought across the sea by the young princess of Constantinople, 1 
and of the exquisite needlework with which she supports the family ; 2 
in Constantine's attracting the attention of his father, the emperor 
Constantius on a public occasion; 3 in the reunion of the family 
at a banquet, 4 and in the recognition by means of a ring. 5 The 
emperor makes Constantine his heir, and according to some accounts 
then first marries the mother. 6 

Thus it appears that (1) the substitution of one child for two, 7 
(2) the absence of mutilation, hermit and miracle, s (3) the life of 
the woman and child under humble circumstances, and the boy's 
education at Eome, and the recognition through the son at a 
banquet by means of a ring, are all accounted for on the hypothesis 

1 Such jewels appear in most of the versions ; in Pec the woman lives by 
the sale of jewels inherited from her mother, as in Const the princess, by 
those given by her mother. In several versions, a priceless jewelled robe is 
especially described (notably Em, Mai, En, Anj). In Const, the empress of 
Constantinople gives her daughter " de vasis vestibus et aliis quibuscumque 
apparatibus auro et argento et gemmis pretiosissimis adornatis . . . addens et 
de thesauris pannorum sericeorum," etc. (Incerti Audoris de Constantino 
Magno ejusqtie Matrc Helena Libellus, ed. Heydenreich, Lipsiae, 1879, p. 10, 
11. 14-21). In another version, the emperor gives Helena instead of a ring a 
peplnm of imperial purple (Coen, op. cit., IV, p. 298). 

2 Here the needlework, prominent in Anj, Biih, Em, Yst (perhaps hinted 
at in Man, 11. 5880-84), is transferred to the daughter-indaw, the description 
of her work, however, being in perfect accord: " Nurus vero Helenae in 
textura operum muliebrium snmptuosorum et nobilium secundum quod suam 
decuit condicionem more subtilitatum Graeciae bene erudita bonam pecuniam 
de labore manuum cottidie lucrabatur" (p. 20, 11. 9-12). Other versions 
must have attributed it to Helena herself, as there are traditions that she was 
a famous needlewoman. An embroidered Madonna said to be of her making 
is still shown at Vercelli, and an inventory of the treasures of Philip the Good 
contains an altar-cloth attributed to her (cf. Michel, op. cit., II, 336, with 
note 6). 

3 The recognition comes about through the son, in Man, Tr, Biih, Em, 01, 
Fax, Pen, and in HC (under very different circumstances) ; and the boy is 
prominent in Mai and En. 

4 The banquet is found in Mai, Man, En, Anj, Tr, Em, Ys, Biih, Faz, 01, 
Pen and in HC (the recognition of the sons only). 

5 The ring is a device in Man, Cont and 01 (in HC it is on the arm which 
Brice carries, and leads to recognition). 

6 In HC, this seems to be echoed in the story of the Oriental princess 
Plaisance. She gives herself to Constantine, but in a moment of peril flees 
from him across the sea ; she lives with a senator in Rome, where her son is 
born ; and after many years of separation, hardship and wanderings, meets 
Constantine at Rome and marries him. Here is the senator who appears in 
Man, Tr (with a wife Helena) in Mai and in En (where the child is Constan- 
tine). Iurdan may even be a corruption of his name (in HC) Joseran. 

7 Mai, En, Man, Anj, Tr, Hung, Dae, Biih, Em, 01, Faz, Cont, Pen (13) 
have one ; V 1, HC, Yst, Pec, and Mir (6) have two. 

8 In Mai, En (I do not consider scratching the face and cutting the hair an 
equivalent, as it meant only temporary disfigurement and required no miracle), 
Anj, Tr, Biih, Em, Faz, Cont (though the hand is brought in curiously by 
the trying on of the mother's glove which exactly fits). 



xxxviii Origins. The Gonstantine Legend. 

of influence from Con-it. 1 The exposure in an open boat or cask I 
take to be from an entirely different source, 2 but some of the 
versions in which the heroine escapes by flight 3 may have come 
under the influence of Const. 

Further, the influence of Const appears plainly in the names: in 
HC, we have Helena and Constantine, who is also sometimes called 
Constans, in evident confusion with his father, and Constantinople, of 
which the heroine's father is emperor; in Tr, liberie Constantine and 
Constance 4 (Couste), and Helena 5 her cousin; in KR (the prose 
version dependent upon the source of En) the boy is baptized Constan- 
tine ; 6 in Cont, the girl's father is the Emperor Contasti. 7 In 01, the 
emperor is Giuliano = Julian, who succeeded Constantine, after the 
short reign of the former's three sons, and married his daughter Helena. 8 

Another possible connection between the two cycles is this. In 
many of the folk-lore tales, the heroine is an inn-keeper's daughter. 

1 Mai. En, Man, Tr, Yd, Pec, Bilh, Em, 07, Faz, Cont (11) ; in HC ami 
Dae, in part ; in Anj, the poverty only; in Sung, a convent ; in V 1 as in 
Mir, the woods of Britain ; in Pen, in woods, but afterwards at the house of 
a sorcerer whose abode is quite unlike that of a hermit. Further, a pagan 
(witness the case of Vergil) was far more likely to have been transformed into 
a magician than was a hermit. 

2 See p. xliii below. 3 HC, Yst, Pec, Uac, Faz. 

4 Perhaps Tr's confusion arose in part from the duplication of the names 
in connection with the two emperors : Constantine the Great had a sister 
Constancia, a daughter Constantina and three sons, Constantius, Constantine 
and Constans ; Tiberius Constantine, a daughter Constantina. The unique 
opening incident in Tr is perhaps to be explained by some legend of the 
Emperor Maurice and his wife Constantina, who with their children were 
persecuted and obtained a certain reputation as Christian martyrs. Gough 
has shown {Constance Saga, pp. 34-46) that stories not unlike this in general 
character were current in the 12th century about Edwin. But he suggests no 
material that explains the important differences between V 1 and nearly all 
the later versions. The only incident for which it might possibly account is 
the bringing up of the child with a boy of the same age to whom his mother 
is nurse (in Dae, Faz, and in part, in Mai). It is possible that more evidence 
on the Edwin-saga may be forthcoming ; but with the facts known at present 
I cannot accept this as the foundation of the great bulk of the versions. 
Further, it seems to me that Trivet may have known that he was foisting 
the tale upon history, for at the end (p. 43) he suddenly introduces Edwin, 
without accounting for him in any way. 

5 So with Helena. It was the name of Constantine the Great's mother 
and one of his daughters ; of Tiberius Constantine's wife, according to one 
account, which mentions also a jealous mother-in-law (Gibbon, op. eit., V, 
17, with n. 34) ; likewise, of the wife of Constantine Porphyrogenitus (944), who 
might have helped on the legend. Is Erayne in Em a corruption of Elayne? 

6 Cf. Mai unci Beaflor, p. xxii. 

7 And merchants take the place of the rudderless boat. This may have 
come from Const or from Florence of Rome. 

8 a.d. 355. A contemporary legend is attached to her name to the effect 
that all her children were killed at birth by the jealousy of her sister-in-law, 
the Empress Eusebia. See Gibbon (1896-98), II, 258-59, 406-7. This might 
have helped on the legend of Helena. 



Origins. The Constantine Legend. xxxix 

Suchier explains this as a natural interpretation in later times of 
the fact that the letters were changed at the old woman's dwelling, 
hence she must have been an innkeeper ; l but in the popular tales 
it is the heroine, not the traitress, who is connected with the inn. 
Now Helena is called stdbularia by St. Ambrose, who was born 
within twenty-five years of her death; 2 and later writers who 
wished to argue for her lawful marriage as more consonant with 
sainthood tried to explain the word away. Hence the association 
Avas pretty well established. 3 

That Const is as old as the Outcast Wife tale is probable. The 
legend of the finding of the Cross began in the 4th century, 4 
the legend of Constan tine's birth was alluded to by Bede 5 early in 
the 8th century, certain episodes of the cycle were worked up by 
CyneAvulf, 6 a little later, while a Greek legend, apparently of the 
same century, the martyrdom of St. Eusignius of A.ntioch, tells a 
well-defined story not unlike the one I have outlined. In this, 
Helena is the beautiful daughter of an innkeeper, and Constantius 
gives her a peplum of royal purple. Years after, wanting an heir 
to his kingdom, he sends messengers in quest of one. At the inn, 
their attention is attracted by Constantine, who mounts one of 
their horses. When they would reprove him, Helena tells his 
origin, and shows the peplum ; and he is adopted by the emperor. 7 

Having proved that Const accounts for the differences between 
V 1 and Mir, and the great majority of versions, we may note that 
the juxtaposition rather than blending of the two stories is most 
visible in HC, in which Ave find the two children, the mutilation, 
hermit and miracle, combined with exposure at sea and sojourn at 
Eome, together Avith the episode of the senator, which is trans- 
ferred to the parallel tale of Plaisance and Constantine. All this 
matter is connected with legends of St. Martin, possibly by con- 
fusion with another empress of the same name. 8 

1 Op. cit., p. lxA'ii. - Graf, op. cit., II, 53. 

:i Horstmann, NLA, II, pp. 13-14. 

4 Cf. Smith and Wace, Die. of Christ Ian Biog., Constantine the Great. 

5 Hist. Ecclcs., IV, 523. 6 Ehnc. 

1 Coen, op. cit., IV, 297-98. For other early references and variants, 
cf. Graf, op. cit., pp. 46-120. Graf shows how from a stabularia, Helena 
came to be considered a princess of Treves or Britain, or the East, her estate 
growing Avith the legend. 

8 Sulpicius Severus {Dialogues, II, ch. 6, 7) relates how the empress 
waited npon Martin at table and afterwards dined off the fragments. Accord- 
ing to a Welsh tradition (cf. Gibbon, op. cit., Ill, 136, note) she was called 
Helena. The passage is suggestive of HC in several ways ; but more evidence 
is needed to establish a connection. 



xl Origins. The Constantino, Legend. 

Gough supposes that ■•'HC arose at Tours, carried thither from 
England during the English domination of Touraine, 1154-1205,. 
and this is possible. 1 But I think we may trace the connection 
further back. 

Two of the English versions place some of the scenes in York- 
shire; the third seems to have been written in that very district. 2 
*HC certainly arose at Tours. ISTow the literary connection of 
York and Tours, in the personality of Alcuin at the end of 
the eighth century, is one of the important facts of the Dark 
Ages. 3 It meant that practically the whole of the lore of Northern 
England at that time was transferred — very literally in the form 
of copies — to Tours, whence it would readily spread over the 
Continent. 4 

Const flourished very early in Britain and was particularly 
connected with York; 5 hence some form of it was almost certain 
to have been among Alcuin's books. Whether he took also sagas 
of Offa of Ongle is far more doubtful. He would not have approved 
of their pagan character; 6 and it is impossible to say how far they 
had developed by the time of Offa of Mercia. Certainly the legend 
in V 1 as we have it, is not alluded to at that time, as is the combat 
by the river, 7 though the Wife's Complaint, which is of the eighth 
century, shows that similar stories were current theu. s 

In England, before 1200, we have VI quite uninfluenced by 
Const, which, however, appears much later in Tr and Em. On 
the continent, Melusine-tales were early attached to Foulques 
d'Anjou, and perhaps through his devotion to St. Martin of Tours, 
his legend came to be bound up with matter relating to that saint,, 
and with Const, brought to Tours by Alcuin (as in HC). But Man, 
though on a much larger scale, barring certain changes due to the 
author and the episode of the cut hand (taken perhaps from *HC), 

1 But it does not seem to me to explain the divergences between three 
versions as closely related in time and place as *HG, Man and Anj. 

"VI, Tr and Em. Historically, the connection with York and the 
expedition against the Picts and Scots (cf. Tr, Bull and doubtless Pec) may 
have been taken from the career of Constantine, but it is curious to note that in 
Trivet's time (1318) the Scots invaded Yorkshire and burned Knaresborough. 

3 Cf. Gaskoin, Alcuin, London. 1904, p. 55. 

4 Ibid., quoting a letter written by Alcuin, p. 100 (Jaffe, Monumcnta 
Alcuiniana, Berlin, 1864, p. 346. He urges that his books be sent him from 
York to Tours that they may be known in France as well as in England. 

5 Gibbon, op. tit. , I, 399 ff. 

6 Cf. Gaskoin, pp. 39, 40, 52, 104. 

7 Contained in the first part of V 1. In WidsVS, 11. 35-45. 

8 That the legend underlying the Wife's Complaint is closely allied, even 
if not the same, is undeniable.. 



Origins. French and German Versions. xli 

agrees closely in its general outline with Em; 1 also, the source of 
Mai and En, although further removed hy processes of translation, 
and modified hy other matter, preserves a form between Em and 
Man? while Anj shows no close essential connection with Em or 
Tr and relates itself, if to any form, to VI, which may have been 
derived from England, direct hut late and imperfect, hy the Sieur 
de Viarmes et Chamhly. 3 

It is not necessary here to follow out the later developments in 
great detail. 4 

1 There are good reasons for holding that Beairmanoir spent several years 
in England (Suchier, op. cit., I, p. x) ; and the probable date of his story, 
1261-65, would have been shortly after the French lay was composed. But 
even if he knew the lay, Beaumanoir probably altered and augmented it, partly 
by fancy, partly according to other traditions. 

2 That is, it preserves some features that have been lost, obscured, or 
altered in Man, particularly Mai which retains the robe and the nurse. Cf. 
Suchier and Gough, Constance Saga, for the relationships of Man, Mai and 
En, which are indisputable. The late Bilh seems to me purely a combination 
of forms similar to Man (but earlier than Beaumanoir, as the cut hand is 
lacking) and Tr. It would seem natural to suppose that he had used Mai ami 
En, but the differences are important. It agrees with Yst and Pec in 
identifying the heroine with the daughter of a King of France ; but aside from 
this, in few essentials. If the author was a soldier in the English army 
(cf. Gough, Constance Saga, pp. 28-30) he may have got there a version akin 
to Tr's original. 

3 Who took part in negotiations with the English in 1303. The romance 
as it stands is so full of local colour and incidents that might have come from 
the poet's observation, that it would seem his lord told him only an outline 
corresponding roughly to V 1, in so far as it gives the story of an innocent 
woman twice exiled in the forest. It retains the primitive feature, in that 
there is no talk of the Pope or of marriage. The nurse is prominent, though 
she is dropped abruptly at the time of the marriage (as in Em, but later) and 
the treasure and needlework are emphasized. The account of the teaching of 
needlework to the seneschal's daughter here resembles the tale of Bcrte, wherein 
the seneschal's wife is called Constance. Possildy it is Bcrte that borrows this 
episode, together with a closely associated meeting with a hermit in the forest, 
from some earlier form of the Outcast Wife tale. In Anj, there is no mutilation 
and but one child, the circumstances and details differ totally from every 
other version, and the second exile is very short. The unnatural father dies 
of grief soon after, the traitress is the, aunt, the girl flees into the forest the 
first time, and the second is condemned to be thrown with her child into a 
well in the forest, the countess is besieged before she is burned (in Bilk, 01, 
Cont also, but perhaps suggested in each case by HC, in which she is first 
imprisoned in a castle, then burned) ; the count seeks Ins wife in the garb of 
a serf, and the meeting happens in a Hotel Dicu. This poem looks more like 
a genuine work of creation than any other version ; but some of its matter 
may have been derived from the gestes of the early Dukes of Anjou, which seem 
to be a mine of tradition as yet largely unexplored. 

4 The changes of scene make a study in themselves. Aside from England, 
Rome and Constantinople, we find Greece early introduced, doubtless as 
connected with Constantinople. But Man makes the father King of 
Hungary. This might have come through Bcrte, whose father was King of 
Hungary, or through Florence, in which Emere and Miles belong to that 
country. It is noteworthy that legend made St. Martin also son of a King 
of Hungary (cf. especially Lc Mystere de la Vie et Hystoire de Monseigneur 
Sainet Martin, 15th century, ed. Boisthibault, Paris, 1841), and that even 



xlii Origins. Italian and Spanish Versions. 

The Italian and Spanish versions are secondary, derived from 
the forms already discussed, so blended, condensed, augmented and 
inverted that their exact relationship is extremely difficult to follow. 

In Italy, the oldest account seems to be the greatly condensed 
Yst, 1 which in general reads like a condensation of *HC. Then 
comes Pec 2 also borrowed from *HC. Dae is a thoroughly mixed 
version, but most of its elements are found in HC, though differently 
arranged and combined there. 3 When Fazio came to compile his 
artificial and arbitrary version, he had certainly Dae and Pec, 
possibly several other versions before him. 4 01 gathers up into 
itself features borrowed from Mir, Florence of Rome, Em and 
Cord. 5 Mir stands absolutely apart and belongs to this cycle only 

St. Helena was, according to some writers, said to have been born in that 
land (cf. Graf. op. cit., II, 54 ft.). But the idea of the Roman Empire was 
perhaps the basis for them all (cf. Iluon de Bordeaux, in which Julius Caesar 
is King of Hungary and Austria, and " Sire " of Constantinople). 

1 It combines a voyage by land and one across the sea with a mariner. 
The two sons are educated by a cardinal. Its chief difference is a connection 
with the Hundred Years' War ; but this is sufficiently explained by the date 
at which it was written. The duke whom the heroine marries might have 
been conceived as one who also ruled England. Richard Cceur de Lion was 
called Comte d'Avjou (cf. Tarbe, Chansons de Blondel de Necle, Reims, 1862, 
pp. 129, 151); and the French origin of the girl might have been derived 
from the Holy Roman Empire (cf. Mir, "nel tempo nel qwale fo tra«slat(at)o 
el romawo imperio al re de Franzia "). It is not certain that *HC was 
connected with Constantinople. 

2 The opening incident is altered. The girl flees to avoid marrying an old 
German lord ; otherwise the tale is a fair condensation, with minor changes. 
One son is called Lionetto (cf. Leo in HC). 

"' It shows however a certain influence from the source of Mai, in that the 
heroine, who has but one child, becomes nurse to another about the same age. 
On what ground Gough derives it from the same source as Hung I cannot see. 
It contains much extraneous religious material. 

4 From Pec he seems to have taken the convent episode ; and from Dae the 
woman's acting as nurse to a child the age of her own. But he seems to have 
inverted deliberately the leading parts in order to fit them with his idea of the 
Hundred Years' War. 

5 From Mir it evidently gets the two cut hands and the method of recovery, 
the exposure in the forest of Britain or Brittany (stanzas of the older Stella, 
the dramatization of Mir, are embodied); from Florence of Rome, the episode 
of the scorned knight killing the child of which she is the nurse, and getting 
her banished to the woods as a result ; from Cont apparently, the besieging of 
the mother and burning her in her convent, the use of the ring and perhaps 
the merchants who took her to the King of Castile. The cask seems to have 
been borrowed from En, unless it comes directly from Apollonius of Tyre. 
The conclusion at Rome Again seems to follow Cont. Wesselofsky holds that 
it was also influenced by the legend of Saint Oliva of Palermo. Aside fiom 
the name, the chief point of contact is in the double persecution by land and 
by sea. The saint first crosses the sea (but under different circumstances, "e 
patria abducta, atque in Africam deportata ") and is afterwards driven into a 
wild forest where she lives as a hermit for years (Fazellus, De Rebus Siculis, 
Catanae, 1749-53, II, 303). It is probable that the slight resemblance warranted 
the attachment of the name Oliva ; but there are no special traces of the 
legend itself. 



Origins. Italian and Spanish Versions. xliii 

in its second part, the first coming from the kindred tale of the 
cruel stepmother. 1 

Of the Spanish versions, Vic in its details suggests Hung which 
depends very directly upon Man, though by its own assertion it 
goes back to a French original, probably Man. 2 Cant represents a 
French version older than Man and in several respects comes so 
curiously close to Em as to suggest that it depends upon an 
original nearly related to that of Em. 3 

Bat among all these relationships 4 there is nothing that suggests 
the difference already observed in the method of exposure. I 
have alluded to the fact that by the end of the 12th century, the 
legends of the two Offas had become thoroughly confused. 5 The 
ancient story of Thrytho from Beoioulf was transferred to Offa of 
Mercia, and confused with some legend of a Frankish princess 
relating to that same King and Charlemagne. I have elsewhere 
tried to point out the historic and legendary basis of such a tale. 
As it stands in V 2* it shows several curious coincidences with the 
Outcast Wife series: (1) in V 2, the heroine says that she was 
exiled because of a certain marriage which "ne degeneraret, 
sprevit." The verbs here suggest the opening incident in the 
series. It is not likely that Charlemagne would have tried to 
marry her to a man of low rank." But if the allusion is to pride of 
race as in Beowulf, En stands alone in an extraordinary agreement: 

"des muotes ward sie also reich, (cf. Mud BrySo wa?g). 
Da} sie kainen man wolf nemon, 
wan der ir $e mann(e) mocht' ge3emen." s 

1 It approaches VI most nearly, with a different opening episode borrowed 
from some tale similar to Little Snow- White. It differs in the important points 
that (1) the heroine's hands are cut off, hut her children are safe ; (2) the duke 
goes to a tournament at the court of his father-indaw, instead of the wars in 
the North ; (3) the duke leaves her in his father's care. Mir does not follow 
Vim representing the war as occurring some time after the birth of the 
children, or the treachery as coming from the girl's father. It resembles VI 
chiefly in the hunting episode and the part of the hermit. 

2 The placing the hands on a dish before the King probably comes from 
Hung. 

y An Anglo-Norman lai of the reign of Henry III (whose wife and sister- 
in-law were both princesses of Provence) might easily have been conveyed to 
.the South of France, thence translated into Catalan. 

4 The detailed comparisons instituted by Suchier, and followed up by 
Gough with great minuteness, I have not thought it necessary to repeat, as 
my results agree except where I have called attention to the dilferences. 

5 Cf. O.E. Offa Saga, Jan. 1905, p. 18 ff. (reprint). 

6 That is Vita Offae Sccundi (of Mercia, 767-96) in Wats's edition. 

7 And he was accused of incest ; so likewise was Arthur (aside from Emar6). 

8 LI. 14-16. Beoioulf, 1. 1931 f. ; cf. also the prose: "Diu wolte ouch 
keinen man nemen denne der ir geviele " (pp. ix, x). 



xliv Origins. Method of Exposure Incest. 

Again, in V %, the real reason of her exile is said to be " crimen 
flagitiosissium"; 1 in Hung 2 and Cont, 3 she describes herself as a 
wicked Avoman and in En is described by the queen-mother as " ain 
boesej weip." 4 

In V2, "addicta est iudicialiter morti ignominiose, uerum ob- 
regie dignitatis reuerentiam igni uel ferro tradenda won iudicatur, 
sed in nauicula armamentis carente apposit[a]," 5 etc., is very like 
Vic, where the King's Council conclude: "Non es derecho que 
ansi muera, mas el derecho manda, que muger de linaje real que 
errare, que la non maten, mas que la metan en una nave sola," etc. 6 
So in Hung, while some of the barons advise that she be drawn 
and burned, others, "faes devorar a besties salvatjes," one says 
put her into a " barcha sens nul govern" and let God take the 
responsibility. 7 Again, the parents in V 2 retired to a monastery 
in their disgust with the marriage ; s in Cont 9 and in Ol, 10 the 
mother retires to a convent. 

Even if all these coincidences are accidental, the fact remains 
that in England in the 8th century and again in the 12th century, 
we have a legend of a woman charged with a crime, exposed at sea 
in an open boat, 11 while in the 13th this appears twice (the originals 
of Em and of Man), and once in the early 14th (Tr), attached to 
the Outcast Wife Cycle. 

The fundamental idea of VI is incest. The whole story is the 
double vengeance of the baffled father; in Tr, it is jealousy (twice 
repeated) of the mother-in-law ; 12 in Em, it is first the one then 
the other. 

The source of the incest idea is almost certainly Apollonius of 
Tyre, which was known in England in the 10th or 11th century, 
and was enormously popular throughout Europe. This is twice at 
least connected with the tale under consideration : once, in HC where 

1 Ed. Wats, p. 12, ]. 32 f. 

2 "Fembra pecadriu ere " (ed. Bofarull, p. 60). 

3 In the second journey: " Io son fembre nada de peccat " {op. cit.> 
p. 533). The allusion here, however, may be purely general. 

4 LI. 271-72. So the prose: "mich hat min untat da her brant" (p. xi) ;. 
and Mai: vmb untat ist versti>3en (col. 68, 7-8). 

3 Ed. Wats, loc. cit. B Ed. Lemcke, p. 21. "' Loc. cit. 

8 Ed. Wats, loc. cit. 9 Op. cit., p. 530. l0 Ed. D'Ancona, III, 274. 

11 The introduction of the closed boat, which in En becomes a cask, may 
have been suggested by La Comtesse dc Ponthicu (Moland and D'Hericault, 
Nouvelles francoises en prose du ,viii e siecle, Paris, 1856), which in turn 
may go back to the chest in Apollonius of Tyre. 

12 I doubt whether Tr is simply repeating his motive. The details of the 
first part suggest a story akin to the Kyng of Tars, possibly related of Maurice 
and Ins wife Constance. 



Origins. Incest. Jealous Mother-in- Laiv. xlv 

the King made his daughter sleep in his room, 1 and in Yst where 
the girl alludes to Antiochus, "pro cum eius filia ipso delicto," etc. 2 
Once suggested, the idea related itself in Em to similar tales 3 
of Arthur, and on the Continent to an Emperor of Rome or King 
of France, probably through Charlemagne who was both. 

The jealous mother-in-law seems to be borrowed from Melusine, 
or some other early version of the Swan-Maiden Cycle, which 
nourished in the 12th century. 4 This is seen by the suggestion of 
monstrous or abnormal children, which is an elementary feature of 
the tales in which a mortal marries a fay or wood-nymph, the 
transformed Valkyrie. But the supernatural woman was found 
sometimes in the forest, sometimes in a ship, as in the legend of 
Richard Occur de Lion. 5 Here note that her real name Bertrade 
was perhaps associated with that of the Valkyrie Bertha, as was 
Cynethryth ( = Quendrida in V 2) with that of the Valkyrie 
Thrytho. 

The forging of a letter is perhaps a natural device, suggested by 
the King's absence, and is not necessarily borrowed from Const 
where the use is so different. 6 Still, it is only V 1 and Li Dis 
de VEmpereour Constant that it seems to be found as early as the 
13th century. 

The most difficult problem in the development of the series is 
the cut-hand episode. In only two of the folk-lore versions, among 
■43 known to me, is it combined with the incest; on the other 
hand, it is found regularly where the persecution comes from the 
step-mother, as in Mir, where the hands are used in evidence of 
death, as in the Little Snow-Wlrite group; in Berte, the heart or 
tongue (a sow's or dog's used) ; in the legend of St. Hildegard, the 
eyes (a dog's used). 7 This with its original significance appears 

1 MS. Lyons, 767, fol. 3, 3a, 4a. 2 MS. Lat, 8701, fol. 142. 

3 The tale of Ragallach (O'Grady, Silva Gadelica, Loudon, 1892, 430 f)'.) 
is fundamentally different not only in its details, but in the fact that the king- 
is ignorant of his daughter's identity. 

4 Cf. O.E. Offa Saga, pp. 41-43. There is also such a character in 
Partonope of Blois. It is possible, however, that Const comes in here as well. 
The Empress Fausta, wife of Constantine the Great, was believed guilty of 
the death of her step-son Crispus, and through the agency of Helena, her 
mother-in-law, is supposed to have been put to death by her husband on a 
charge of adultery. There was a strong belief shortly after her death that 
she was innocent, and Chrysostom says that she was exposed in a desert to be 
devoured by wild beasts (cf. Gibbon, J I, 210-11). 

: ' See poem of that name (Weber, English Metrical .Romances, London, 
1810, II, 11. 63-229), with Mouskes, op. cit., 11. 18720-809. 

G Here the order of death to the bearer, is replaced by the command that 
he of the letter is to marry the princess. 

7 Cf. O.E. Offa Saga, p. 44, n. 1. 



xlvi Origins. The Cut Hand. Other Legends. 

nowhere in the cycle except in Mir and in very clumsy form in 
HC, where, however, it is followed logically by the feature that the 
cut-hand intended as evidence of execution, with its ring becomes 
a means of identification. Elsewhere this mutilation occurs only 
in Man, where it is explained by the mediaeval idea that no cripple 
could succeed to a throne ; l in Hung, 01, Vic and Pen where it is 
motived by the hypothesis that the beauty of the hands especially 
attracted the father (brother); 2 hence in these last both hands are 
cut. 

In VI, the idea seems to be fundamentally different. The 
children are killed by having their hands and feet cut off, and this 
is the punishment apparently twice threatened for the heroine, but 
never carried out. 3 This was not done to furnish evidence of 
death, but merely as a punishment, possibly with the additional 
idea of preventing escape ; incidentally, it opened up the way for 
a miracle. 

The miracle indeed is the link between the two ideas ; and the 
cut-hand Avas retained long alter the original reason for it was 
forgotten, in order that the miracle might be worked. This 
hypothesis at least seems to me in accord with the facts ; and 
therefore I hold that the episode as it stands represents two very 
old Germanic ideas — (1) a definite form of inflicting death, and 
(2) mutilation as evidence of death, strangely transformed in some 
cases, but preserved for the miraculous opportunity it furnished. 4 

The other principal legends which influence the series are Berte 
and Florence of Bonte. Berte seems to be the oldest known form 
of a legend akin to the wicked step-mother tale. Its influence is 
seen possibly in the mutilation or threat of injury ; in Anj, perhaps, 
in the finding of the heroine in the woods by the seneschal and the 
subsequent episode in which she teaches his daughters embroidery. 5 
Perhaps it appears also in the incident of the false charge of 
murder and the bloody knife (though in Tr, this is obviously 
parallel to Florence of Rome),'' the heroine's concealment of her 

1 Cf. the legend of St. Melor (Brewer, Die. of Miracles, London, 1884, p. 411). 

2 In this respect, it agrees in idea with number LV1I of the Exempla of 
Jacques de Vitry (London, 1890). 3 Wats, op. cit., p. 6, 11. 30-36. 

* In Brewer's Die. of Miracles, pp. 224, 259, 399, 400, are related various 
miracles of this sort. The one most likely to have influenced this cycle is 
perhaps that of St. William of Oulx, in the 12th century, whose hand was 
miraculously restored (400). 

5 Cf. O.E. Off a Saga, p. 44, and p. xli, note 3, above. 

6 The numerous points of contact between these two groups of tales 
about innocent persecuted women call for detailed discussion, which would be 
out of place here. HC, particularly, is indebted to Florence of Borne. 



Origins. Other Legends. Sir Eglamour of Arias, xlvii 

royal birth (not in V 1, but common to most of the other versions, 
and the burning of the traitress (unless this conies from the Swan 
Cycle). The influence of Florence is seen in the heroine's turning 
nurse (as in Dae, Faz, 01), and this may share with Berte, the 
Sirun legend, Oetaman and VI responsibility for the forest exposure. 
Oetavian is responsible for the shipwreck on the island, and for the 
education of the boys by a hermit in HC, possibly also for the 
substitution of twins for one child. 1 

Without pursuing the subject into further labyrinths, 2 I must 
touch upon the relation between the English poems nearly con- 
temporary with Em, Sir Eglamour of Artas (Eglam) and Torrent of 
Portyngale {Tor), which contain the episode of the princess with 
her child (children) exposed at sea. 

With the important difference that in Eglam and Tor the 
woman is guilty of the fault for which she is exposed, there are so 
many coincidences of detail and language as to suggest borrowing : 
whole lines and couplets agree, with only such slight changes as 
come often between two versions of one story. 3 In Eglam and 
Tor, the passage is episodic, as one among the many difficulties 
encountered by the knight in winning his lady ; hence I hold that 
the source of Em is perhaps the original of the three. Eglam 
shows much closer resemblances than Tor, which agrees however in 
dialect, Eglam being classed as Northern. Pending a critical 
edition of the latter, I will add only that the resemblances between 

1 In V 1 the children are not said to be twins. 

2 Other legends appear in HC: St. Alexius, Eustache-Placidas, possibly 
La Heine Sibillc, possibly Pdchard Cceur de Lion, and others that I have not 
yet identified. 

3 Cf. Em, 1. 634 ; Eglam, 1. 827 ; Tor. 11. 1838-39 ; Em, 11. 326, 674 ; 
Eglam, 1. 887 : Em, 11. 277-78 ; Eglam, 11. 881-82 ; Tor, 11. 1840-41 ; Em, 
11. 317, 322 ; Eglam, 1. 884 ; Tor, 1. 1843 ; Em, 1. 275 ; Eglam, 1. 883 (emend 
then odur, copied by mistake from 1. 884 to ne rodur) ; Em, 1. 314 ; Eglam 
1. 885 ; Em, 11. 328, 676; Eglam, 1. 888 ; Em, 11. 355, 364, 718 ; Eglam, 1. 
887 ; Em, 11. 331, 337 ; Eglam, 1. 897 ; Em, 11. 368-70 ; Eglam, 11. 928-29 
(the word delycyus is not common in romances of this class). I might add a 
long list of lines in Eglam which are paralleled in Em but are less peculiar or 
significant. Of., however, Eglam, 1. SOI ; Em, 1. 33 ; Eglam, 1. 803 ; Em, 
1. 624 ; Eglam, 1. 815 ; Em, 1. 639 ; Eglam, 1. 818 ; Em, 646 ; Eglam, 11. 
844-45 ; Em, 11. 772-74 ; Eglam, 11. 938-39 ; Em, 11. 343-45, 688-90, etc. 
There are also longer passages that read like an echo from Em or its sources : 
the King of Egypt's discovery of the outcast, 1. 892 f. ; the child serving in the 
hall at dinner, 11. 1273-75 ; and especially, the mother's instructions to her 
son how he should greet his father, 11. 1278-81. That these episodes are 
borrowed rather from the French than from the English Em is perhaps 
indicated by the use made of the ring {Eglam, 715-17, Tor 1396-98) which 
is not found in Em, but appears in several other versions (see p. xxxvii, note 
5, above). 



xlviii Conclusion. 

E'jlam and Tor not found in Em, and the greater remoteness of 
Tor from Em, indicate that, whatever may be the relations of the 
two in other respects, Eglam was probably the intermediary for 
Tor in this episode. 

§ 9. CONCLUSION. 

Emare cannot be ranked high among the versions of this tale. 
Over against La Comtesse cVAnjou, it is rough indeed, although in 
contrast with the artificial elaborations of La Belle Helene and even 
of La Manelcine, its simplicity, even baldness, is refreshing ; and 
in a few instances it shows real tenderness. 1 But it is interesting 
chiefly from the point of view of origins. I am convinced that 
further work upon the development of the legend, would throw 
light not only upon the close relations between the great cycles of 
romance, but also upon the methods used in the combination of the 
ancient national lore with the " boke of Eome " (the importance of 
which has been recognized only within the last 25 years), 2 and 
to some extent with Oriental tales brought westward in the 
Crusades, and with early or contemporary history; 3 and would 
show how these classes of materials were modified, even transformed, 
under the influence of the Church, its dogmas and legends. 4 

1 Notably in the references to the child. Cf. 11. 661-2 and 811-13. 

- The researches of Coen and Graf particularly indicate that the phrase 
meant more than a casual reference to a French source. From numerous hints 
and allusions in mediaeval literature, I am convinced that some great collec- 
tion of Roman tales, of which the extant Gesta Romanorum is but a feeble 
imitation or reflection, has been lost ; and that this contained matter relating 
to various historical personages, especially Julius Caesar, Octaviauus, Vespasian, 
Hadrian, Titus. Diocletian, Nero and Constantine (in the Comtc de Poitiers, 
Constantine frees his uncle Nero from the prison of the Sultan of Babylon, Graf, 
op. cit., pp. 52-71, and see note on 1. 158), and perhaps Julian and others. But 
as yet the classical element in romance has not received the attention bestowed 
upon the Celtic and Teutonic materials. 

a A most amusing combination of 'materials is mentioned by Graf {op. cit. 
II, 47) : Constantine's sword was given by Hugh Capet to Athelstan, and used 
by Guy of AVarwiek to kill Colbrand. 

4 I believe that the Provencal legend of the two Maries (mothers of St. 
James the Greater and St. James the Less), which tells how they were driven 
from Palestine by the Jews, put out to sea in an open boat without sail or 
rudder <>r provision, and under divine guidance drifted to the village now 
called Les-Saintes-Maries-sur-Mer, has exerted some appreciable influence, at 
least, upon the popularity of the cycle; but at present my facts are too dis- 
connected to be presented in an orderly manner here. The Provencal legend 
seems to be connected with some worship of Notre Dame de hi Mer. An 
interesting suggestion of this is offered by a bas-relief, taken from a 16th 
century house in Lyons (now in the museum of that city). It shows the 
Madonna and Child alone in a little ship, which is being governed by two 
angels. The inquiry is perhaps worth pursuing. 



xlix 



APPENDIX. 

The play contained in MS. Latin 8163 of the Bibliotheque 
Nationale, formerly of the Colbert collection, and officially cata- 
logued as apparently of the 15th century,. is preceded by the notice 
in a later hand : 

" Columnariuin quod et comoedia sine nomine inscribitur, sex 
actibus absolvitur, non inelegante scriptis, stilo tamen nonnihil 
irapedito. Codex scriptus xiiii saeculo." 

The Prologue, which explains the moral purpose of the play, is 
headed by a picture of a monk who seems to be dictating to a 
cardinal writing at a desk. The Colonna coat-of-arms (a white 
column on a red ground) occurs frequently throughout the 49 folios 
of the work. As the text is written without any spacing between 
the parts, the length of the piece is apparent. 

Passing through Paris, I was able to give a few hours to a 
cursory examination of this version ; but the Argument, immediately 
following the Prologue, seems to show that it probably contributes 
little to our knowledge of the development of the legend. It can 
therefore be passed over with a few brief comments, more especi- 
ally as it will doubtless be included by Professor Suchier among his 
studies on La Fille sans Mains, of which another is announced 
to appear shortly in Romania. 

The plot in outline is as follows : " Emolphus, rex Carillorum," 
at the entreaty of his dying wife Phylostates, swears that he will 
marry only a woman like herself ; and so presently, after a search 
throughout the world, ehooses his own daughter Ermionides. She 
and her nurse pretend to agree, on condition that he finds it to be 
the will of the gods ; and while he is gone to consult the oracle, 
they escape in a boat to Phocis. Here they are kindly received by 
Sophia ; and Ermionides is married to Hor(r)estes (Orestes), king 
of that country, to the great anger of his mother Holicomesta 
or Olicomesta (almost certainly corrupted from Clytemnestra). A 
son is born while Hor(r)estes is absent in Atbens ; and the mother- 
in-law forges a letter to say that the child is an Ethiopian, and 
then changes the king's order to take care of mother and child, into 
a command that they be put to death. Accordingly Celius ("regine 



1 Appendix. 

custos") sets the boy adrift in an osier-basket, with gold and regal 
treasures, and abandons the queen in a trackless wood. The child 
is found by Acthironeus (?), who takes him to Parnassus to consult 
the oracle upon the question of his adoption. Meanwhile, 
Hor(r)estes, upon his return, is informed by Celius of what has 
occurred, and wishes to avenge himself by the death of his mother, 
but oppressed by the Furies ("stipatus ruanipuloram cohorte 
ferocium "), he is soothed by the counsel of Celius, and persuaded 
to go to the oracle at Parnassus. Here he finds his wife and son ; 
and the nurse presently coming with news of the death of Emol- 
phus, and " Phocays senex," with word of the death of Olicomesta, 
the play ends happily for hero and heroine. 

There are many characters in the play, and some of the names 
have a curious interest, as : Pallinurus (the boatman), Misenus, 
Cornelius Tacitus, Tertullus, Verginus, Afrodissa (Aphrodite?), 
Eegulus, etc. Especially noteworthy is the name Altruda, which 
seems to be a Germanic form related to the Drida of Vita Offae 
Secundi. Perhaps when the text is printed, more light on this 
point may be forthcoming. 

The chief peculiarities of this version are: (1) the apparently 
unique combination of the tale of the persecuted wife with that 
of Orestes and Clytemnestra, and (2) the attempt to reconcile con- 
flicting accounts of the method of exposure in the case of mother 
and child, unless, indeed, in the case of the latter, the author 
borrows the device from the narrative of Moses. 

Altogether, this text belongs to the group in which there is 
only one child and no cut-hand ; but it does not agree, in setting 
or in details, with any other work that has been published. For 
this reason, it may possibly prove to be of more value than I have 
assigned to it on the basis of the Argument alone. 



(Smart. 

(MS. Cotton Caligula, A ii.) 



(1) 
Ihesu, pat ys kyng in trone, 
As Jjou shoope bo)>e sonne awe? mone, 

And alle pat shalle dele and dyghte, 
Now lene vs grace such dedws to done, 
In pj blys pat we may wone, 

Men calle hv/t heuen lyghte ; 
And )jy modw Mary, heuyn qwene, 
Bere our arurcde so bytwene, 

That sernely ys of syght, 
To )?y sone pat ys so fre, 
In heuen wyth hjm pat we may be, 

That lord ys most of mygfit. 



[leaf 71J 
Jesus, wlio 
created all 



grant us grape 

to enter 
heaven. 



9 Mother Mary, 
intercede loi- 
ns with thy 
Son. 



I 'J 



(2) 

Menstrelles pat walken fer and wyde, 
Her and per in euery a syde, 

In mony a dyuerse londe, 
Sholde, at her bygywnyng, 
Speke of pat ryghtwes 1 kyng 

That made both see and sonde. 
Who-so wylle a stouwde dwelle, 
Of mykylle myrght y may ^ou telle, 

And mornyng J>er a-monge • 
Of a lady fayr and fre, 
Her name was called Emare, 

As I here synge in songe. 



15 



1« 



21 



24 



Minstrels 
who wander 
in many 

lands, should 



Whosoever 
will stop a 
while shall 
hear a tale 
of mirth 
and sorrow, 
about a fair 
lady called 
Emare\ 



R. ryhtwes. 



The Emperor-Father and Empress-Mother of Emare. 



Her father 
was an 
emperor 
called sir 

Artyus, who 
had great 
possessions. 



He had 
married a 
fair and 
courteous 

lady, Dame 
Erayne. 



(3) 
Her fadyr was an emperour, 

Of castelle and of ryche towre, 

Syr Artyus was hys nome ; 
He hadde bojje hallys and bowrys, 
Frythea fayr, forestes wyth Howrys, 

So gret a lord was none. 
Weddedde he had a lady, 
That was both fayr and semelv, 

Whyte as whales bone ; 
Dame Erayne hette \>at emperes, 
She was fulle of loue and goodnesse, 

So curtays lady was none. 



27 



30 



33 



36 



(4) 
Syr Artyus was J>e best maraie 



Both hardy and ]>er-io wyght ; 
and courteous He was curtays in alle byng, 

and just. J rJ at 

Bothe to olde and to jynge, 



He had but 

one child of 
liis wedded 
wife; but 
that was fair 
and seemly, 



And welle kowth dele and dyght. 
He hadde but on chyld in hys lyue, 
Be-geten on hys weddedde wyfe, 

And Jwt was fayr and bryght ; 
For sobe, as y may telle Jje, 
They called bat chyld Emare, 

That semely was of syght. 



39 



42 



45 



48 



When she 
was born, 
she was the 
fairest crea- 
ture in the 
laud. 

The empress 
died before 
the child 
could speak 
or walk, 

^o it was sen 
to a lady 
called Abro, 



(5) 
When she was of her modwr born, 
She was be fay rest creature borne, 

That yn be lond was boo ; 
The emperes, bat fayr ladye, 
Fro her loi'd gan she dye, 

Or hyt kowbe speke or goo. 
The chyld, bat was fayr and gent, 
To a lady was hyt sente, 

That men kalled 1 Abro ; 



51 



54 



57 



R. called. 



Emari is brought up by the Lady Abro. The King of Sicily. 3 



She tliaw^tli \\yt curfcesye and the we, 
Golde and sylke for to sewe, 
Anionge maydenes inoo. 

(6) 
Abro tawjte bys inayden smalle, 
Nortw 1 pat men vseden) 2 in sale, 

Whyle she was in her bowre. 
She was curtays in alle thynge, 
Bothe to olde 3 and to 3ynge, 

And whythe as lylye flowre ; 
Of lier hondes she was slye, 
Alle he[r] loued b«t her sye, 

Wyth menske and mychyl honowr. 
At be niayden) leue we, 
And at be lady fayr and he, 

And speke we of Jje emperour. 

(7) 
The emperow of gentylle blode, 
Was a curteys lorde and a gode, 

In alle maner of thynge. 
Aftur, when hys wyf was dede, 
And ledde hys lyf yn weddewede, 

And 4 myche loued playnge, — 
Sone aftwr, yn a whyle, 
The ryche kynge of Cesyle 

To be emperour gaii) wende. 
A ryche present wyth hym he browght, 
A cloth pat was wordylye wroght. 

He wellecomed hym as pe hende. 

(8) 
Syr Tergaunte pat nobylle knyjt (hy3te), 5 
He p?-esented pe emperour ryght, 
And sette hym on hys kne, 



who taught it 
courtesy and 
slitchery, 
among other 
(30 maidens. 



Abro gave 
this small 
maiden the 
usual educa- 
tion. 



63 



66 



69 



7^ 



75 



78 



81 



84 



She was 
courteous to 
everybody, 

white as a 
lily, clever 
with her 
hands, and 
loved by all. 



Now let us 
leave the 
maiden and 
her nurse 
and speak of 
the emperor, 



who, after his 
wife's death, 
led his lite ill 
widowhood, 
and greatly 
loved dalli- 
ance. 



Soon after, 
the great 
king of Sicily 
came to the 
emperor, 

[leaf 71, bk.] 
bringing a 
splendid 
cloth as 
present, and 
was nobly 
welcomed. 



87 



Sir Ter- 
gaunte, that 
noble knight, 
on his knee 
before the 
emperor, 



1 R. Nortour. 2 R. usedenn. 3 R. old. 

4 G. changes And to He. Other possible emendations are : And 
he ledde ; or, by analogy to I. 989, A ledde. 

5 The omission of hyjte improves the metre ; but although the 
yj is blotted, the word is not unmistakably crossed out by the 
scribe. Kolbivg, however, considers it erased (Eng. Stud. , xv, 248). 
.See note on the line. 



4 The King of Sicily s splendid Cloth given to Emart's Father. 



offered t lie 

splen.lia 
doth, 

which was as' 
thickly set 
as possible 
with topaz 
ami rubies, 

with Glad- 
stones and 
agate (?) 
and other 
rich stones, 



as I tell thee 
truly. 



Wyth pat cloth rychyly dyght, 
Fulle of stones \er h?/t was pyght, 1 

As thykke as hyt mygnt be : 
Of(f) 2 topaze and rubyes, 
And opur stones of myebe prys, 

That semely wer to se ; 
Of crapowtes and nakette, 
As 3 thykke ar pey sette, 

For sothe, as y say fie. 



90 



93 



As the 
emperor 
looked at 
the cloth, he 
could not see 
readily for 
the glistering 
Of the rich 
stones, 



and said, 
" How may 

this be? 

Certes, this is 
a fairy thing 
or an illu- 
sion." 
The King 
of Sicily 
answered, 
"It is the 
richest jewel 
in Christen- 
dom." 



The daughter 
o: the Einir 
of heathen- 
dom made 
this cl >th, 
and adorned 
it with gold, 
azure and 



which were 
sought far 
and wide. 



Seven years 
it was a- 
making, 
belore it was 
finished. 



The cloth was dysplayed sone, 
The emperowr 4 lokede pe/'-vpone, 

And myght[e] hyt not se ; 99 

For glysteryng of pe ryche ston 
Eedy syghte had he non), 

And sayde, " How may pys be] " 102 

The emperour sayde on hygh, 
" Sertes, pys ys a fayry, 

Or ellys a vanyte ! " 105 

The Kyng of Cysyle answered fan, 
" So ryche a jwelle ys per non 

In alle Crystyante." 10S 

(10) 
The amerayle doubter of hepe«nes 
Made p.ys cloth wj/t/i-outen) lees, 

And wrowjte hyt alle w?/t7i pride ; 111 

And pwrtreyed hyt wyth gret honour, 
Wyth ryche golde and asowr, 

And stones on ylke a syde. 114 

And, as pe story telles in honde, 
The stones pat yn ]>ys cloth stonde, 

Sow3te pey wer fulle wyde. 117 

Seaen wy/iter hyt was yn inakynge, 
Or h//t was browghte to endynge, 

In herte ys not to hyde. 120 

1 MS., was dye (crossed out) pyght. * 2 G. Of. 

3 G. suggests A[l]s[6] for As to improve the metre. See 11. 90. 
138. 

4 R. emperoer. 



Th> tTing of Sicily's splendid Cloth given to Eiaare's Father. 5 



(11) 
In pat on korner made was 
Yiloyne and Amadas, 

Wyth loue pat was so trewe ; 
For bey loueden) hem wyth 1 honowr, 
Portrayed 2 bey wer w>/th trewedoue-flow, 

Of stones bryght of he we : 
Wyth carbunkulle and safere, 
Kassydonys and onyx so cdere, 

Sette in golde newe ; 
Deamondes and rubyes, 
And opur stones of mychylle pryse, 

And menstrellys wyth her gle[we]. 



In tlie first 
comer were 
the true 
lovers, 
123 Ydoyneand 
Amadas, 
portrayed 
with true- 
love-flower in 
precious 
stones, 



126 



129 



135 



carbnncle, 
sapphire, 
chalcedony 
and clear 
onyx, >et in 
new sold, 

diamonds, 
ml ies, and 
other precious 
stones. 



(12) 
In pat opur corner was dyght, 
Trystram and Isowde so biyjt, 

That semely wer to se ; 
And for bey loued hem i 
As fnlle of stones at bey dyght, 

As thykke as bey may be : 
Of topase and of rubyes, 
And opur stones of myche pi 

That semely wer I 
Wyth crapawtes and nakette, 
Thykke of stones at bey sette, 

For sothe, as y say J»e. 

(13) 
In be thrydde korner, wyth gret honour, 
Was Florys and Dam Blawncheflowr, 

As loue was hem be-twene ; 
For bey loued 3 wyth honour, 
Portrayed J>ey w.a J wyth trewe-loue-ffoMr, 4 

Wyt// stones biygtLt and shene : 
Ther wer 1 kny^tus and senatowres, 
Emerawdes of gret vertn 

To wyte w//t/<-outen) wene ; 

1 R. wit. - G. Pcmrt rayed. 

ipplies hem after loued by analogy to I. 124 above. 
4 R. flower. 



In the second 
corner were 

the true 
lovers, 
135 Trystram 

and Isowde, 
set thickly 
with precious 



138 



HI 



1-W 



with topaz, 
rubies, and 
other gems, 



witli load- 
stones and 

- 



In the third 
corner were 
Florys and 
Dame Blawn- 
147 cheflour, 



with true- 
love-flower 
1 oO in gems, 



153 



G The King of Sicily s splendid Cloth given to Emare's Father. 



diamonds, Deamoumles 1 and koralle, 

coral, chryso- 
lite, crystal, Perydotes and crystalle, 

and good 
garnets. 



And gode garnettes by-twene. 



156 



In the fourth 
corner was 
the son of llie 
Sultan of 
Babylon, 
ami the 
Emir's 
daughter, 
who made 
this cloth for 
his sake. 



[leaf 72J 
An unicorn, 
with his high 
horn, was 
portrayed 
before the 
maiden, 
with flowers 
and birds ill 
rare stones. 



When the 
cloth was 
finished, 
it was 
brought to 
the sultan's 
son. 

"My father 
took it by 
force from 
the sultan, 
and gave 
it me, 

and 1 bring 
it to thee 
specially." 



He gave it to 
the emperor, 
who thanked 
him properly. 



(14) 
In the fowrthe korner was oon, 
Of Baby lone fe sowdan sonne, 

The amerayles dowjtyr hym by. 
For hys sake ]>e cloth was wrowght ; 
She loued hym in hert and thowght, 

As testymoyeth J>ys storye. 
The fayr mayden her* by-forn 
Was portrayed an vnykorn, 

Wyth hys horn so hye ; 
Flowres and bryddes on ylke a syde, 
Wyth stones ]>at wer sowghte wyde, 

Stuffed wyth ymagerye. 

(15) 
When the cloth to ende was wrowght, 
To J)e sowdan sone hyt was brow^t, 

That semely was of sy^te. 
" My fadyr was a nobylle man, 
Of pe sowdan he hyt wan, 

Wyth maystrye and wyth 2 my3th. 
For gret loue he }af hyt me, 
I brynge hyt J>e in specyalte, 

Thys cloth ys rychely dyght." 
He jaf hyt J»e emperour, 
He receyued hyt wyth gret honowr, 

And fonkede hym fayr and ryjt. 



159 



162 



165 



168 



171 



17-1 



17^ 



180 



The King 
of Sicily 
amused 
himself with 
the emperor 
as long as 
be wished, 

then took 
leave and 
went home. 



(16) 
The Kyng of Cesyle dwelled per, 
As long as hys wylle wer, 

Wyth J)e emperour for to play ; 
And when he wolde wende, 
He toke hys leue at ]>e hende, 

And wente forth on hys way. 



183 



186 



R. Deamom 



- K. omits. 



E mare's Father sends for her, and takes her to his Palace. 7 



Now remeueth 1 b?/s nobylle kyng. 
The emperowr ahur hys dow^twr hadde 

To speke vnjth \>at may. 
Messengeres forth he sent 
Aftyr be mayde fayr 3 and gent, 

That was 1)i y^t as someres day. 

(17) 

Messengeres dyjte hem \u hye ; 
Wyth myche myrthe and melodye, 

Forth gon bey fare. 
Both by stretes and by stye, 
Aftur bat fayr lady, 

Was godely vnjmr gare. 
Hernorysse, bat hyjte Abro, 
Wytii her she goth forth also, 

And wer sette in a chare. 
To be em-perow gan be[y] go ; 
He come a3eyn hem a myle or two ; 

A fayr metyng was there. 
(18) 
The mayden, whyte as lylye flour, 
Lyjte a3eyn 4 (her fadyr 5 ) be emperowr 

Two kny^tes gan her leile. 
Her fadyr, bat was of gret renowne, 
That of golde wered be crown e, 

Ly^te of hys stede. 
When 6 bey wer botlie on her fete, 
He klypped her and kyssed her swete, 

And bothe on fote bey 3ede. 
They wer glad and made good chere, 
To be palys bey ^ede in fere, 

In romans as we rede. 
(19) 
Then be lordes }wt wer grete, 
They wesh and seteii don 7 to mete, 

And folk hem serued swyde. 

1 So MS., not remeneth as G. says. 
- This line is obviously corrupt. G. omit* 
and inserts he after zm\>erour. 3 R.. fayre. 
5 G. suggests the omission of these u-ords. 
n G. Then. ' R. doun. 



lonsvnsc, 2 



Now the 
emperor 

longed to 
speak with 
] S9 llis daughter, 
and sent 
messengers 
to fetch her. 



192 



195 


These went 
forth, with 
mirth and 
minstrelsy, 


198 


to fetch the 
fair lady. 


201 


Abro, her 
nurse, went 
with her, 
and they set 
out in a 
"oar," 


204 


to go to the 
emperor, 

who came a 
mile or two 
to meet them. 


207 


The maiden, 
white as a 
lily, alighted, 

and w:is led 

up by two 

knights. 


210 
213 


Her father 
also alighted, 
and when 
they were 
both on foot, 
"clipped " 
her and 
kissed her, 


216 


and they 
went together 
to the palace. 


219 


The great 
lords washed 
and sat down 
to meat. 


aftw hys dowtvr 
4 G. ajeyen. 





8 Emare"s Father gets the Pope's Leave to wed her. She refuses. 



The maiden 
sat before 
lier lather, 

and she was 
so lair that 
lie fell in lov< 
with her, 



The mayden, pat was of senibelawt 1 swete, 
By fore 2 her owene fadur sete, 

Tlie fayrest wommon on lyfe ; 
That alle hys hert and alle hys Jjow^th, 
Her to loue was yn browght ; 

He by-helde her ofte sy|?e. 
So he was an-amored hys pow^tur tj\\e, 
Wytlt. her lie jjowjth to worche hys wylle, 

And wedde her to hys wyfe. 



222 



225 



228 



When the 
meal was 
done, 

he called his 
council into 
his chamber, 

and bade 
them get 
le ive from 
the Pope for 
him to wed 
his daughter. 

They durst 
not disobey, 
but sent 
messengers, 
and earls 
with them, 
to Rome. 
They brought 
the Pope's 
Hull permit- 
ting the 
marriage. 



Then the 
emperor was 
glad, and had 
a robe made 
of the eloth 
of gold, 



in which she 
looked fairer 
than mortal 
woman. 
Then he said, 
"Daughter, 
I will wed 
thee ; " 



[leaf 72, bk.] 

and she, 
"Nay, God 

forbid ! 



(20) 

And when pe metewhyle was don, 3 
In-to hys chambur he wente son, 4 

And called hys, counseyle nere. 
He bad J?ey shulde sone go and conic, 
And gete leue of j?e Pope of Eome, 

To wedde pat raayden clere. 
Messengeres forth J?ey wente, 
They durste 5 not breke hys commawdemeMt, 

And erles wyth hem yn fere. 
They wente to pe courte of Rome, 
And browse pe Popus Bullus sone, 

To wedde hys defter dere. 

(21) 

j)en was pe emperow gladde and blyj>e, 
And lette shape a robe swyjje, 

Of pat cloth of golde ; 
And when hyt was don her vpon), 
She semed non erj>ely wommon, 

That marked was of molde. 
Then seyde pe emperowr so fre, 
" Dow^tyr, y wolle wedde pe, 

Thow art so fresh to be-holde." 
Then sayde pat wordy vnjwr wede, 
" Nay, syr, God of heuen h?/t for-bede, 

\)at euer do so we shulde ! 



231 



234 



237 



240 



243 



246 



249 



252 



1 d. semblant. 2 G. Before. 

4 R. soun. 5 R. durst. 



:i R. donn. 



Einari's Father sends her to Sea in a Boat by herself. 9 



(22) 
3yf hyt so be-tydde pat $e me wedde, 
And we shulde play to-gtdur in bedde, 

Bothe we were for-lorne ! 
Jje worde shulde sprywge fer and wyde, 
In alle pe worlde on eue?-y syde, 

\)e worde shulde be borne. 
3e ben a lorde of gret pryce, 
Lorde, lette neuwr such 1 sorow a-ryce, 

Take God 3011 be-forne ! 
That my iadur shulde wedde me, 
God forbede pat I hyt so se, 

That wered pe crowne of jdiorne 2 ! 



255 



261 



264 



If we should 
many, we 
should botli 



The news 
would go all 
over the 
world. 



You are a 
great lord ; 

let not such 
sorrow arise. 



God forbid 
that my 
father should 
marry me ! " 



(23) 
The emperoM?" was ryght wrothe, 
And swore many a grete othe, 

That deed shulde she be. 
He lette make a nobulle boot, 
And dede her J>er-yn, God wote, 

In pe robe of nobulle ble. 
She moste haue vryih her no spendyng, 
Hopur mete ne drynke 3 ; 

But shate 4 her yw-to pe se. 
Now pe lady dwelled ))ore, 
Wyth-owte anker or 5 ore, 

And pat was gret pyte ! 



The em- 
peror was 
furious, 
and swore 
OlJJ great oaths 
that she 
should die. 
He had a 
boat made, 
and put her 



in her splen- 
did dress, 
without loud 
or drink ; 



270 



273 



276 



and cast lier 
into the sea 
without 
anchor or 



(24) 
Ther come a wynd, y vnjwrstonde, 
And blewe pe boot fro pe londe, 

Of her pej lost pe sygfrt. 
The emperow hym be-Jiowght 
That he hadde alle myswrowht, 

And was a sory knyjte. 



282 



1 R. suche. 2 R. thorne. 

3 MS. drynke. R. adds [givyng]. G. suggests n[5b]e[r]. Cf. 
I. 593 below. I should suggest drynk?/??(/ in the sense of something 
to drink ; bid the first instance of this use quoted in the Oxford 
Dictionary is 1552. See note on the line. 4 R. shote. 

5 G. suggests 6[be]r 5re, which improves the metre. 



A wind arose 
and blew the 
boat out of 
their sight. 



The emperor 
bethought 
himself, 
and grieved 

so at his mis- 
deed that he 
fell to the 
earth in a 



10 Emares Father repents his Sin. She is sought for in vain. 



The great 
lords that 
st >od by, 
took lii hi up 

and com- 
forted him. 



When he 
was recover- 
ed, he wept 
sore and said, 
" Alas, my 
daughter I 
Alas, that I 
was made 



I went 

against God's 
law, and she 
was true. 
Alas, that she 
were here! " 



The great 
lords wept 
with him. 



There was 
none that did 
not weep for 
that comely 
maid. 

They throng- 
ed into ships 
to seek her ; 
but although 
they sought 
everywhere 
on the sea, 
they came 
back without 
her. 



Now let us 
leave the 
emperor and 
speak of the 
lady. 



She floated 
forth alone, 
praying to 
God and Hi; 
mother. 



And as he stode yn studyynge, 
He felle down in sowenynge, 

To pe yr)?e was he dygrlt. 285 

Grete lordes stode per-hy, 
And toke v[p] x pe emperour hastyly, 

And comforted hym fayr and ryglit. 288 

(25) 
When lie of sownyng kouered was, 
Sore he wepte and sayde, "Alas, 

For my dowhter dere ! 291 

Alas, pat y was made man ! 
Wrecched kaytyf pat I hyt am ! " 

Tlie teres rorcne by hys lere. 291 

" I wrowght 2 a-3eyn Goddes lay, 
To her pat was so trewe of fay. 

Alas, why ner 3 she here ! " 297 

The teres lasshed out of hys y^en ; 
The grete lordes pat hyt sy^en, 

Wepte and made ylle chere. 300 

(26) 
Ther was nopur olde ny 3ynge, 
That kowJ?e stynte of wepynge, 

For pat comely vnfrar kelle. 303 

In-to shypys faste gan fey prynge, 
For to seke pat mayden 3ynge, 

J?«t was so fayr of flesh and felle. 306 

They her sow^t ouw-alle yn pe see, 
And mj^te not fynde pat lady fre, 

A^eyn pey come fulle snelle. 309 

At pe emperour now 4 leue we, 
And of f>e lady yn pe see, 

I shade be-gywne to telle. 312 

(27) 
The lady fleted forth a-lone ; 
To God of heuen she made her mone, 

And to hys modyr also. 315 

1 MS. vn. 2 R. wrawght. 3 MS. vowel blotted. 

4 MS. inserts in the margin, with a caret to show that ii should 
be placed between emperour and leue. 



Emari is driven to Zand in Galys. The Steward, Sir Kadore. 1 1 



She was dryuen wyth wynde and rayn, 
Wyth stronge stormes her a-gayn, 

Of Je watwr so bio. 
As y haue herd menstrelles sywg yn sawe, 
Hows ny lond my^th she non knowe, 1 

A-ferd she was to go. 
She was so dryuen fro wawe to wavve, 
She hyd her hede and lay fulle lowe, 2 

For watyr she was fulle woo. 



318 



321 



324 



She 


was 


• i ii \ 


■en on 


will 


i strong 


stor 


ma of 


win 


it and 


rain 


against 


her. 




As ] 


: have 


heal 


-.1 min- 


St IV 


is sing, 


she 


could not 


tii. 1 


house 



(28) 

]S T ow ]5 t ?/s lady dwelled ]?ore, 
A good seuen-nyjth and more, 

As hyt was Goddys wylle ; 
Wyth carefulle herte and sykyng sore, 
Such sorow was here parked }ore, 

And euer lay she sty He. 
She was dryuen yn-to a lond, 3 
Thorow pe grace of Goddes sond, 

That alle J>yng may fulfylle ; 
She was on ]?e see so harde be-stadde, 
For hunger and thurste almost madde, 

Woo worth wed eras ylle ! 

(29) 
She was dryuen in- to a lond, 
That hyjth Galys, y vnjwrstond, 

That was a fayr countre. 4 
fie kyngus steward dwelled \er by-syde, 
In a kastelle of mykylle pryde ; 

Syr Kadore hygnt he. 
Euery day wolde he go, 
And take wyth hym a sqwyer or two, 

And play hym by ]>e see. 
Ou a tyme he toke Tpe eyr, 
Wyth two kny^tns gode and fayr ; 

The wedur was lythe of le. 



327 



330 



333 



336 



339 



342 



345 



348 



Now she re- 
mained thus, 
lying still in 
her sorrow, 
a good seven 
night and 
longer, 



until by 

God's grace 

she was 

driven 

ashore. 

So hard was 

[leaf 78] 
she bestead 
that she was 
nearly mad 
with hunger 
and thirst. 



She was 
driven into 
a land called 
"Galys." 



The lung's 
steward, 
Sir Kadore, 
who dwelled 
there in a 
great castle, 
every day 
went down 
to the sea 
with a squire 
or two. 



Once he was 
taking the 
air with two 

knights, 



1 R. knawe. 2 R. lawo. 

3 L. 331, in MS. is followed by I. 338 crossed out. 

4 R. cuntre. 



12 Emariis taken to Sir Kadore' s Castle. She teaches Silk-work. 



and found a 
boat ashore, 
in it a 
glistering 
tiling that 
amazed 
them; 
but they 
went up to 
tlie lady, who 
had been so 
long " meat- 
less," that it 
grieved them 
to see she 
was almost 



They asked 
her name; 
but she 
changed it 
to Egare". 



(30) 
A boot lie fond by be brym, 
And a glysteryng byng ber-yn, 

Ther-of bey hadde 1 f'erly. 
They went forth on be sond 
To fce boot, y vnjwrstond, 

And fond ber-yn pat lady. 
She hadde so longe meteles be, 
That hym Jjowht gret dele to se ; 

She was yn poyn[t] to dye. 
They askede her what was her name 
She chaunged hyt per a-none, 

And sayde she hette Egare. 



351 



354 



35^ 



360 



Sir Kadore, 
full of pity, 

took the lady 
home. 



She was lean 
as a tree 
through lack 
of food. 



They took 
her into a 
room of the 

castle, 
and led her 
with all kinds 
of delicious 
meat and 



ink. 



(31) 
Syr Kadore hadde gret pyte ; 
He toke vp be lady of be see, 

And honx gan he[r] lede. 
She hadde so longe meteles be, 
She was wax lene as a tre, 

That wordy vnpur wede. 
In-to hys eastelle when she came, 
In-to a chawmbyr bey her nam, 

And fayr bey gan) 2 her* fede, 
Wyth alle delycyus mete and drynke, 
That Hey myjth hem on bynke, 

That was yn alle pat stede. 



363 



366 



372 



When the 
fair lady w 
recovered, 



she taught 
tlieni to sew 
and mark all 
kinds of silk- 
work. 
They were 
lull lain of 
her ; 
she was 
courteous to 
all, 



(32) 
When pat lady, fayr of face, 
Wytii mete and drynke keuered was, 

And had colowr a-gayne, 
She taw}te hem to sewe and marke 
Alle maner of sylky 3 werke ; 

Of her pey wer fulle fayne. 
She was curteys yn alle byng, 
TJothe to olde and to 3ynge, 

I say 30W for certeyne. 



1 R. had. 
3 R. sylkyn. 
after it. 



375 



378 



381 



MS. sylky, but a letter has evidently been erased 



The King of Galys falls in love with Emare 1 . His Council. 13 



She kow^Jje 1 werke alle manor byng, 
That felle to emperonr, or to kyng, 

Erie, barowii) or swayne. 384 

(33) 
Syr Kadore lette make a feste, 
That was fayr and honeste, 

Wyth hys lorde, }>e kynge. 387 

Ther was myche menstralse, 
Trbmmpus, tabo^rs 2 and sawtre, 

Bothe harpe and fydylleyng. 390 

The lady, bat was gentylle and smalle, 
In kurtulle alone serued yn lialle, 

By-fore bat nobulle kyng. 393 

])e cloth vpon) her shone so bry3th, 
When she was ber-yn y-dy^th, 

She semed non erdly byng. 

(34) 
The kyng lokcd her vp-on), 
So fayr a lady he syj neu^r non), 

Hys herte she hadde yn wolde. 
He was so an-amered of bat sy^th, 
Of be mete non he my 3th, 

But faste gan her be-holde. 
She was so fayr and <jent, 
The kynges loue on her was lent, 

In tale as hyt ys tolde. 405 

And when be metewhyle was don), 3 
In-to be chamb?/r he wente son), 4 

And called hys barouns bolde. 

(35) 
Fyrst he calle[d] Syr Kadore, 
And o\>ur kny$tes bat ber wore, 

Hastely come hy?n tylle. 5 411 

Dukes and cries, wyse of lore, 
Hastely come be kyng be-fore, 

And askede what was hys wylle. 414 

1 R. kowthe. 2 R. 'from pus, tabors. 

3 R. iloun. 4 R. soun. 

5 MS., I. 411 is omitted and written in the margin. 



and couM do 
work suited 
to emperor, 
king, earl, 



Sir Kadore 
made a 
goodly feast 
tor the king, 
with min- 
strelsy t>i 
trumpet, 
tabouv, 
psaltery, 
harp, and 
fiddle. 



Tlie gentle 
lady, in her 
kinle alone, 
served before 
the king: 



but in her 
shining robe 
she seemed 
no earthlv 

396 tl,il,g - 



The king 
looked at her, 
and became 
so enamoured 
399 of her fair- 
ness that he 
could not eat, 



402 but stared at 
her fixedly. 



When the 
meal was 
done, he went 
into the 



Sir Kadore, 
and other 
knights to 
come hastily 
to him ; 
and wise 
dukes and 
earls came 
and asked the 
king's will. 



4 The King of Galijs ivishes to wed Em are". His Moth er objects. 



Then lie said 
to Sir Kadore, 
"Tell me 
whence is 
that lovely 
maid 
[leal 78, bk.] 

that served in 
hall to-day ? " 



Then spakke pa ryche yn ray, 
To Syr Kadore gan he say, 

Wordes fayr and stylle : 
" Syr, whens ys pat louely may, 
Tliat yn po halle serued pys day? 

Telle me, $yf hyt be fy wyllt 



417 



420 



Then said 

Sir Kadore : 

"An earl's 

daughter 

iron i a far 

land. 

I sent for 

her to 

teach my 

children 

courtesy. 

She is the 
cunningest 

in he! 



(36) 
Then sayde Syr Kadore, y vn)wstonde, 
" Hyt ys an erles pow^tur of ferre londe, 

That semely ys to sene. 423 

I sente aftw her, certeynlye, 
To toche my chylderen curtesye, 

In chambur wyth hem to bene. 426 

She ys pe komiyngest wwftmon, 
I trowe, pat be yn Crystendom, 

Of werk pat y haue sene." 429 

Then sayde pat ryche raye, 
" I wylle haue pat fayr may, 

And wedde her to my quene ! " 432 

(37) 
The nobulle kyng, verament, 
Aftyr 1 hys modyr he sent, 

To wyte what she wolde say. 435 

They bro\vjt[e] forth hastely 
That fayr mayde Egarye ; 

She was bryjth as somercs day. 438 

The cloth on her shon so bryght, 
When she was jw-yn dyght, 

And her-self a gen telle may, 441 

The olde qwene sayde a-non), 
" I savve neuer wommon 

Haluendelle so gay ! " 444 

(38) 

The old queen The olde qwene 2 spakke wordws vnhende, 
said ungra- 
ciously And sayde, " Sone, b?/s ys a fende, 3 

■"Son, this is J ' i YJ J > 

:l fiel,d - In pys wordy wede ! 447 

1 It. After. 2 ' R. old quene. 

3 MS. as in text, not sende as G. says. 



work that I 
have seen in 
Christen- 
dom." 

Then said 
the king: 
" I will make 
lier my 
queen." 



The king 
gent for hi 
mother, 



and showed 
her the fair 
maid in her 
shining robe. 



The old queen 
said," 1 never 
saw a woman 
half so fair." 



The King of Gcdys weds EmarL SJte conceives a Child. 15 



As po\\ louest my blessynge, 
Make pern nexmr pys weddynge, 

Cryst hyt de forbede ! " 
Then spakke pe ryche ray, 
" Modyr, y wylle haue pys may ! " 

And forth gan her lede. 
The olde qwene, 1 for-certayne, 
Turnede wyth ire horn a-gayne, 

And wolde not lie at pat dede. 



Do not marry 

her, if you 
love my bless- 



450 



Then the 
kins said, 
" Mother, I 
will," and led 
J.53 her forth. 

The old queen 
went home in 
anger, and 
would not be 
456 present. 



(39) 

The kyng wedded pat lady hryght 
Grete pwuyance per was dy3tft, 

In pat semely sale. 
Grete lordes wer serued a-ryght, 
Duke, erle, baron anel knyjtli, 

Both of grete and smale. 
Myche folke for sojjc per was, 
And )>e? - -to an huge prese, 

As hyt ys tolde yn tale. 
Ther was alle maner Jjyng, 
That felle to a kyngus weddyng, 

And mony a ryche ruenstralle. 



The Mug 
married the 
lady with 
great pur- 
459 veyimce. 

Great lords 
were well 
served, 
and there was 
4Q2 a huge crowd, 



465 



468 



and all thing 
that belong 
to a king's 
wedding, 
Including 
minstrels. 



(40) 

When pe mangery was done, 
Grete lordes departed sone, 

That semely were to se. 2 
The kynge be-lat'te wyth pe qwene, 
Moch loue was hem be-twene, 

And also game and gle. 
She was curteys and swete, 
Such a lady herde y neuur of jete ; 

They loued both wyth herte fie. 
The lady pfit was both meke and mylde, 
Conceyued and wente wyth chylde, 

As God wolde hyt sholde he. 



After the 
feast was 
done, the 
great lords 
471 departed, 

and left the 
king and 
queen to- 
gether in 
4 / -t love and joy. 



The lady, 
that was 
courteous and 
sweet, con- 
ceived a chilli, 
as it was 
God's will. 



480 



R. queue. 



2 R. see. 



1 6 E mart's Husband goes to th c French King. Her son Segram c ur, 



The king of 
France, at 
that time 

beset with 
Saracens, 

sent for the 
king of 

•Mialys" 
and other 
lords. 

The king of 
" Galys " 
gathered men 
from all 
sides, 

and said to 
Sir Kadore 
and other 
lords, 

"Take heed 
to my 
queen." 



The king of 
France sent 
for them all. 
king, knight, 
and clerk ; 



but the 
steward re- 
mained lit 
home to take 
care of the 
queen. 
She went 
with chilil, 
according to 
God's will, 



till she gave 
birth to a 
goodly child 
with a double 
king's mark. 



The kyng of France, yn pat tyme, 
Was be-sette wyth many a Sarezyne, 

And cumbered alle in tene ; 
And sente after pe kyng of Galys, 
And o\ur lordys of myclie prys, 

That semely were to sene. 
The kyng of Galys, in )>at tyde, 
Gedered men on euery syde, 

In armour bryght and shene. 
Then sayde pe kyng to Syr Kadore, 
And o]>u)- lordes pat tlier wore, 

" Take good hede to my qwene." 

(42) 

The kyng of Fraunce spared none, 
But sent for hem eue?'ychone, 

Botli kyng, kny3th and clerke. 
The stward 1 by-laft at home, 
To kepe pe qwene whyte as fome, 

He come not at pat werke. 
She wente wyth chylde yn place, 
As longe as Godd?<s wylle was. 

That semely vnpw serke ; 
Thylle per was of her body, 
A t'ayr chyld borne and a godele, 

Hadde a dowbylle kyngws marke. 



483 



486 



489 



492 



495 



498 



501 



504 



They christ- 
ened him 
Segramour 
wiili great 
honour. 

[leal 74] 
Then Sir 
Kadore made 
in haste a 
noble letter 
and sent it 
to the king. 



(43) 
They hyt crystened wyth grete honoi<r. 
And called hym Segramowr ; 

Frely was pat fode. 
Then pe steward, Syr Kadore, 
A nobulle lettwr made he thore, 

And wrowjte hyt alle: wyth gode. 
He wrowjte hyt yn hyjynge, 
And sente hyt to hys lorde pe kynge, 

That gentylle was of blode. 



50' 



510 



513 



R. stiward. 



Emarfs Mother-in-law forges a Letter about Emare"s Boy. 17 



The messenger forth gan wende, 
And vtyth be kyngws modwr gan lende, 
And yn-to be castelle he 3ode. 

(44) 

He was resseyued rychely, 
And she hym askede hastyly, 

How be qwene hadde spedde. 
" Madame, \er ys of her y-borne 
A fayr man-chylde, y telle 3011 be-forne, 

And she lyth in her bedde. v 
She ^af hym for bat tydynge 
A robe and fovvrty shylynge, 

And rychely hym cladde. 
She made hym dronkew of ale and wyne, 
And when she sawe ]>at hyt was tyme, 

Tho chambur she wolde 1 hym lede. 



The mes- 
senger went 
forth, and 
stopped at 
5 J g the castle of 
the king's 
mother. 



She received 
him graci- 
ously, and 
asked how 
the queen 
had sped. 
" Madam, she 
has a fair 
man-child, 



519 



522 



525 



id lies ill." 



She gave liim 
a robe and 
forty shil- 
lings for that 
news, 

made him 
drunk with 
ale and wine, 



528 and led him 
to his room. 



(45) 

And when (s)he was on slepe brow3t, 
The qwene bat was of wykked bow3t, 

Tho chambur gan she wende. 
Hys letter she toke hym fro, 
In a fyre she brente hyt do ; 

Of werkes she was vnhende. 
Anobwr letter she made wyth euylle, 
And sayde be qwene had born a deuylle, 

Durste no mon come her hende. 
Thre heddes hadde he there, 2 
A lyon, a dragon and a beere, 

A fowlle, feltred feude. 

(46) 
On be morn, when hyt was day, 
The messenger wente on hys way, 
Bothe by stye and strete ; 



531 



534 



When he was 
asleep the 
wicked queen 
went to his 



and took and 
burned the 
letter. 



Another she 
made, saying 
that the 



with three 
heads (of a 
lion, a dragon 
_ , „ and a bear), 
540 and none 
dared ap- 
proach her. 



On the mor- 
row, the mes 
senger con- 
tinuedhU 
04t5 journey 



1 R. wole. G. suggests she hym led[d]e, which is better for 
rhyme as well as for metre. 

2 MS., hole in there, but the vowel is probably e. 

EMARE. C 



18 Emartfs Husband is deceivd by his Mother s forged Letter. 



till lie came 
to the king, 
greeted hi m, 
and gave him 
the letter. 



As the king 
read, he wept, 
and then fell 
in a swoon 
because of 
his sorrow. 



In trwe story as y say, 

Tylle he come per as pe kynge laye, 

And speke wordws swete. 
He toke be kyng be lettwr yn honde, 
And he hyt redde, y vnjmrstonde, 

The teres downe gan he lete. 
And as he stode yn redyng, 
Downe he felle yn sowenyng, 

For sorow hys herte gan blede. 



546 



549 



552 



Great lords 
took him up; 



but he greet- 
ed sore, and 
said, "Alas, 
that I was 
ever born, 
and made 
king, 

and after- 
wards wed- 
ded the 
fairest thing 
on earth- 
that Jesus 
should send 
such a foul 
fiend to come 
between us ! " 



(47) 

Grete lordes pat stode hym by, 
Toke vp be kyng hastely ; 

In herte he was fulle woo. 
Sore he grette and sayde, " Alas, 
That y emir man born was ! 

That hyt emir shullde be so ! l 
Alas, pat y was made a kynge, 
And sygh wedded pe fayrest byng, 

That on erbe myght go ! 
That euur Jhesu hym-self wolde sende 
Such a fowle, lobly fende, 

To come by-twene vs too ! " 



555 



558 



561 



564 



When he saw 
that it might 
be no better, 
he made and 
sealed an- 
other letter, 
commanding 

that the lady 

be cared for 

until she was 

well, 

with folk to 

wait upo i 

her. 



The mes- 
senger took 
the letter, 
and rode 
home 

through the 
same land, by 
the king's 
mother's 
castle. 



(48) 

When he sawe hyt my3t no better be, 
Anopur lettur pen made he, 

And seled h?/t vryth hys sele. 
He co??imanded yn alle bynge, 
To kepe welle pat lady 3ynge, 

Tylle she hadde her hele ; 
Bothe gode men and ylle, 
To serue her at her* wylle, 

Bothe yn wo and wele. 
He toke pys lettur of hys honde, 
And rode borow pe same londe, 

By pe kyngws modur castelle. 

1 MS. That hyt euur so shullde be. 



567 



570 



573 



576 



The Dnvager-Queen forges another Letter against Emare. 19 



(49) 

And pen he dwelled per alle ny}t ; 
He was resseyued and rychely dy3t, 

And wyste of no treson. 
He made hy??i welle at ese and fyne, 1 
Bothe of brede, ale and wyne, 

And pat be-rafte hym h?/s reson. 
When he was on slepe brow^t, 
The false qwene h-ys lettzu 1 sowjt ; 2 

In-to pe fyre she kaste hyt downe. 
A-noJmr letter she lette make, 
That men sholde pe lady take, 

And lede her owt of towne. 

(50) 
And putte her yn-to pa see, 
In pat robe of ryche ble, 

The lytylle chylde her 1 wyth ; 
And lette her 1 haue no spendyng, 
For no mete ny for drynke, 3 

But lede her* out of pat kygfr. 4 
" Vpon) payn) of chylde and wyfe, 
And also vpon' ^our owene lyfe, 

Lette her 1 haue no gryght ! " 
The messenger knewe no gyle, 
But rode horn mony a myle, 

By forest and by frygfit. 

(51) 
And when pe messenger 1 come home, 
The steward toke pe lettur sone, 

And by-gan to rede. 
Sore he syght and sayde, " Alas, 
Sertes, pys ys a fowle case, 

And a de[l]fulle dede ! " 
And as he stode yn redyng, 
He felle downe yn swonynge, 5 

For sorow hys hert gan blede. 



579 



582 



585 



588 



591 



He stopped 
there all 
night, was 
well received, 
and knew of 
no treason. 
He was well 
at ease with 
food, ale, 
and wine, 
and lost his 
senses. 
And when he 
was asleep, 
the false 
queen sought 
and burned 
his letter; 
and made 
another, that 
the lady 
should be 
seized and 
led out of 
town, 



and put into 
the sea, 
with her rich 
robe and her 
child, with 
no money 
[leaf 74, bk.] 
for food or 
drink. 



594 



597 



600 



603 



606 



609 



" Upon pain 
of child and 
wife and your 
own life, 
grant lier no 
pardon." 
The mes- 
senger knew 
nothing of 
this guile as 
he rode home. 



When the 
steward read 
the letter, 
he sighed and 
said, "Alas, 
this is a bad 
case! " 



1 Probably a-fyne, as G. suggests. Cf. I. 913 below. 

2 After t in MS., a small round blot, which does not seem to be 
intended for an e. G., however, sowjte. 

3 R. drynkyng. 4 R. kyght. s R. swounynge. 



20 Emare and her Boy are <put in a Ship alone. 



The lady, 
hearing the 
outcry, called 
to the 
steward, 
" What is 
this? 



l'ell me what 



The steward 
said, " Here 
is a letter 
from my lord 
that grieves 
me." 

She read how 
she must into 
the sea. 



and they all Ther was nofwr olde ny 3ynge, 

wept witli 

him tor that Xliivt myjte for-bere of wepynge, 

good woman. J > L J ° ' 

For \>at wor)>y vnlpur wede. 

(52) 
The lady herde gret dele yn halle, 
On J>e steward gan she calle, 

And sayde, " What in ty \>ys, he 1 
3yf any-Jiyng be a-mys. 
Telle me what \>at hyt ys, 

And lette not for me." 
Then sayde ]>e steward, veramewt, 
" Lo, her, a lettwr my lord hath sente, 

And Jje/'-fore woo ys me ! " 
She toke ]>e letter and by-gan to rede ; 
Then fonde she wryten alls \>e dede, 

How she moste yn-to \>e see. 

(53) 
" Be sty lie, syr," sayde J>e qwene, 
"Lette syche mornynge 1 bene; 

For me haue J>ou no kare. 
Loke J>ou be not shente, 
But do my lordes cowmaundement, 2 

God for-bede jwu spare ! 
For he weddede so porely, 
On me, a sympulle lady, 

He ys a-shamed sore. 
Grete welle my lord fro me, 
So gentylL? of blo(l)de 3 yn Cristyante, 

Gete he nenur more ! " 

(54) 
Then was \er sorow and myche woo, 
When \>e lady to shype shulde go ; 

They wepte and wronge her hond[e 
The lady, ]>at was meke and mylde, 
In her arme she bar her chylde, 

And toke leue of J>e londe. 



and do the 
command of 
his lord, 

who was 
ashamed 
of his 
"simple 
lady," 

and yet would 
never again 
get one so 
gentle of 
blood. 



There was 
great weep- 
ing and 
wringing of 
1 lands when 
the lady with 
her chiid 
filtered the 
ship. 



612 



615 



611 



621 



624 



627 



630 



633 



636 



639 



642 



1 MS., o in mornynge blotted. 

2 R. commaundement. 3 R. Mode. 
4 K. honde. MS bondus. 



Emari and her Boy are at Sea for 7 Nights and more. 



21 



When she wente yn-to J>e see, 
In \>at robe of ryche ble, 

Men sowened on J)e sonde. 645 

Sore J>ey wepte and sayde, " Alas, 
Certys, ]>ys ys a wykked kase ! 

Wo worth dedes wronge ! " 648 

(55) 
The lady and f>e lytylle chylde 
Fleted forth on be watwr wylde, 

Wyth fulle harde happes. 651 

Her surkote ]>at was large and wyde, 
Ther-wyth her vysage she gan hyde, 

Wyth fie hynjw lappes ; 654 

She was aferde of be see, 
And layde her gruf vpoii a tre, 

The chylde to her pappes. 657 

The wawes, bat were grete and strowg, 
On be bote faste bey bonge, 1 

Wyth mony vnsemely rappes. 660 

(56) 
And when be chyld gan to wepe, 
Wyth sory herte she songe hyt a-slepe, 

And putte be pappe yn \\ys mowth, 663 

And sayde, " My^th y onws gete lond, 
Of be watwr \at ys so strorege, 

By northe or by sowthe, 666 

Wele owth y to warye be, see, 
I haue myche shame yn the ! " 

And euur she lay and growht. 2 669 

Then she made her prayer, 
To Ihesu and hys niodwr dere, 

In alle bat she kowbe. 672 

(57) 
Now ]>?js lady dwelled thore, 
A fulle seuene 3 nyght and more, 

As hyt was Goddys wylle ; 675 

1 R. thronge. 

2 G. emend* to on growf, a reading suggested by Holthiusen. 
Sec note on thin line. 

3 MS., a letter seems to have been erased before nyght. 



When in her 

rich robe 
she went into 
the sea, 



men wept 
and said this 
was a wicked 
deed. 



The lady and 
child floated 
on with hard- 



her Burcont. 



In her fear, 
she lay down, 
with the 
child to her 
breast, 



while the 



When the 
Child cried, 
she nursed it 
and sang 
it asleep, 
and said, 



' ever I get 



I ought to 
curse the sea 
that puts me 
to so much 
shame." 

She prayed 
to Jesus and 
His mother. 



Thus the 
lady con- 
tinued g 
seven-night 
and more in 
her sorrow. 



2 2 Emare'andher Boy land near Rome, & are housd by a Merchant. 



[leaf 75] 



By Gnd's 
grace slie wn 



almost mad 
with hanger 

an I thirst. 



Viyth karefulle herte and sykyng sore, 
Such sorow was her 1 parked ^ore, 

And she lay fulle stylle. 
She was dryuen toward Rome, 
Thorow be grace of 1 God yn trone, 

That alle byng may fulfylle. 
On be see she was so harde be-stadde, 
For hxrngur and thurste alle-most madde, 

Wo worth chawnses ylle ! 



678 



681 



684 



In that city 
dwelled a ' 
rich mer- 
chant called 
Jurdan, 

who every- 
day went to 
take the air 
by the sea. 



he went forth 

alone, 

and found a 

boat with a 

woe-begoue 

fair lady. 



(58) 
A marchaunte dw[el]led 2 yn bat cyte, 
A ryche raon of golde and fee, 

Iurdan was hys name. 
E(e)uery day wolde he 
Go to playe hym by be see, 

The eyer for to tane. 
He wente fortli yn bat tyde, 
Walkynge by be see sybe, 

Alle hym-selfe a-lone. 
A bote he fonde by be brymme, 
And a fayr lady ther-ynne, 

That was ryght wo-by-gone. 



687 



690 



693 



696 



He was 

frightened 



by the glitter 
of the bright 
cloth, and 
thought she 
was no 
earthly being. 



He asked 

lier name, 
and she said 
" E^arye." 



Then he took 
home the 
fair lady and 
her child. 



(59) 
The cloth on her shon so bryth, 
He was a-ferde of ]>at syght, 

For glysteryng of bat wede ; 
And yn hys herte he bowjth ryght, 
That she was non) erdyly wyght, 

He sawe neuw non s(h)uch yn leede. 
He sayde, " What hette 3e, fayr ladye 1 " 
"Lord," she sayde, "y hette Egarye, 

That lye her 3 yn drede." 
Vp he toke pat fay re ladye, 
And be 3onge chylde her by, 

And horn he san hem lede. 



699 



702 



•05 



708 



1 MS., o in of is corrected from y. 

2 A hole in MS. lohere el should be. 



R. here. 



Emare lives comfortably in Rome : her Boy thrives greatly. 23 



(60) 
When he come to %s byggynge, 
He welcomed fayr fat lady ^ynge, 

That was fayr and bryght ; 
And badde hys wyf yn alle )>ynge, 
Mete and drynke for to brynge, 

To \q lady ryght. 
"What )>at she wylle craue, 
And her 1 mowth wylle hyt haue, 

Loke h?/t be redy dyght. 
She hath so longe meteles be, 
That me jjynketh grette pyte ; 

Conforte her $yf \>ou. myght." 



711 



714 



717 



720 



When lie 
came home 
lie welcomed 
the lady, 



and bade his 
wife bring 
her meat and 
drink. 



" Look to it 
that she has 
what she 
would like ; 



and comfort 
her for the 
privation she 
has endured." 



(61) 
Now J?e lady dwelles ther, 
Wyth alle mete pat gode were ; 

She hedde at her wylle. 
She was curteys yn alle j>yng, 
Bothe to olde and to }ynge ; 

Her loued bothe gode and ylle. 
The chylde by-gan for to j>ryfe, 
He wax J>e fayrest chyld onlyfe, 

Whyte as Hour on hylle ; 
And she s[h]ewed 1 sylke werk yn hour, 
And taw3te her sone nortowre ; 

But euyr she mornede stylle. 



723 



726 



729 



732 



Now the lady 
dwells there 
in comfort, 



and by her 
courtesy wins 
the love of all. 



The child 
throve, and 
became the 
fairest child 
alive. 

And while she 
sewed silk- 
work, and 
taught her 
son, she still 
mourned in 
secret. 



(62) 
When \ie chylde was seuen }er olde, 
He was bothe wyse and bolde, 

And wele made of flesh and bone 
He was worjjy vn\>ur wede, 
And ryght welle kow)?e prike a stede, 

So curtays a chylde was none. 
Alle men louede Segramowre, 
Bothe yn halle and yn bowre, 

Wher'-so-euMr he ean gone. 



735 



738 



741 



When the 
child was 
seven years 
old, he was 
clever, and 
bold, and 
well-made, 

and could 
manage a 
horse. 

Everybody 
loved him for 
his courtesy. 



MS. has dots under h, seemingly to shoiv erasure. 



24 The King of Galys is shown his Mother s forged Letter, 



Now let us 
leave the lady 
and speak of 
the king of 
Galys, when 
he came 
home. 



The siege 
is broken, 
and the king 
comes home 
in triumph, 

with great 
lords riding 
by his side. 



Leue we at be lady, clere of vyce, 
And speke of the kyng of Galys, 

Fro be sege when he come home. 

(63) 
Now be sege broken ys, 
The kyng come home to Galys, 

Wyth mykylle myrthe and p?ide. 
Dukes and erles of ryche asyce, 
Barones and knyjtes of mykylle pryse, 

Come rydynge be hys syde. 
Syr K[a]dore 1 , hys steward bawne, 
A^eyn hywi rode wyth niouy a man, 

As faste as he myght ryde ; 
He tolde be kyng a-ventowres, 
Of hys halles and hys bowres, 

And of hys londys wyde. 



744 



747 



750 



753 



756 



The king 
blamed him 
for not speak- 
ing first of 
Egar<5, 



whom he 
loved best. 
Then the 
steward was 
grieved, and 
cried: "Are 
ye no true 
king? 

[leaf 75, bk.] 
Here is your 
letter. 

I have obeyed 
you." 



(64) 
The kyng sayde, " By Goddys name, 
Syr Kadore, bou art to blame, 

For by fyrst tellynge ! 
Thow sholdest fyrst haue tolde me 
Of my lady Egare, 

I loue most of alle byng ! " 
Then was be stewardes herte wo, 
And sayde, " Lorde, why sayst bou so 1 

Art not bou a trewe kynge ? 
Lo her, be letter }e sente me, 
$owr owene self be sobe may se ; 

I haue don $our byddynge." 



759 



762 



765 



768 



(65) 



The king read The kyng toke be lettw to rede, 

the letter, 

and turned 

pale, 

crying, 

" Alas, that 

ever I was 

born ! 



And when he sawe bat ylke dede, 
He wax alle pale and wanne. 

Sore he grette and sayde, " Alas, 

That emir born y was, 

Or euur was made manne ! 

1 MS. Kodore. 



771 



774 



The wicked Forger, Mother of Emare's Husband, is banishf. 25 



Syr Kadore, so mot y the, 
Thys letter come neuwr fro me, 

I telle 1 pe her a-none ! " 
Bothe ))ey wepte and 3af hem ylle. 
" Alas," he sayde, " saf Goddys wylle ! " 

And both f>e[y] sowened pen. 

(66) 
Grete lordes stode by, 
And toke vp pe kyng hastyly, 

Of hem was gret pyte ; 
And when fey both keuered were, 
The kyng toke \\ym pe letter ]>ev, 

Of pe heddys pre. 
"A, lord," he sayde, "be Goddtts grace, 
I sawe neuur pi/s lettwr yn place ! 

Alas ! how may Jj//s be '! " 
Aftwr pe messenger 1 J>er pej sente, 
The kyng askede what way he we«t : 2 

" Lor, 3 be $our niodur fre." 

(67) 
" Alas ! " ]?en sayde pe kynge, 
" Whepur my modwr wer* so vnhende, 

To make }>ys treson 1 
By my krowne, she shade be brent, 
W//tA-owten any opur jugement, 

That thenketh me best reson ! " 
Grete lordes toke hem be-twene, 
That ]?ey wolde exyle pe qwene, 

And be-refe her 1 hyr renowne. 
Thus fey exiled pe false qwene, 
And by-rafte her* hyr lyflope clene, 

Castelle, 4 towre and towne. 



This letter 
77 J from me." 



They lumen 
ed together, 

780 and then 



783 



786 



•Si) 



792 



'95 



The great 

lords took up 
tile king; 



recovei ed, 
tin- king took 
the letter 

and said that 
he could nut 

understand 



They sent for 
the messen- 
ger and asked 
how he went. 
" Lord, by 
your mo- 
ther's castle." 



" Alas," said 
the king, 

'• was it my 
mother then ? 



798 



801 



Great lords 
decided t" 
exile the 
queen and 
attaint her. 



Thus they 
did, 

and deprivi 
her of her 
804 Property. 



(68) 

When she was fled ouur pe see fome, 
The nobulle kyng dwelled at horn, 
Wyth fulle heuy chere ; 



807 



1 R. tell. 2 R. wente. 3 R. Lord. 

4 MS., between Castelle and towre are the words town & with 
a dotted line beneath them to signify erasure. 



When she 
bad Med over- 
sea, the king 
remained at 



26 The King of Galys comes to Borne, to Emare"s Dwelling. 



for Egai'6. 

And when lie 
saw children 

play, lie wept 
for his son. 



Tims he lived 



till he re- 
membered 
how his lady 
was drowned 
for his sake, 



and he de 
cided ti 
to Rome f< 
penance. 



go 



He prepared 

many ships 
and tilled 
them with 
goods for his 

gave alms 
for his soul's 
sake, 



The sailors 
made ready, 



drew up sail 
and laid out 
oar, with a 
fair wind and 
tine weather. 

They sailed 
over the salt 
foam, by 

God's grace. 



He took his 
inn at the 
house of the 
burgess with 
whom Kmare 
dwelled. 



Wyth karefulle hert and drury mone, 
Sykynges made he many on, 

For Egarye be clere. 810 

And when he sawe chyldere?* play, 
He wepte and sayde, " Welle-a-wey, 

For my sone so dere ! " 813 

Such lyf 1 he lyued mony a day, 
That no mon hy??i stynte may, 

Fully seuen yere. 816 

(69) 
Tylle a thowght yn hys herte come, 
How hys lady, whyte as fome, 

Was drowned for hys sake. 819 

" Thorow be grace of God yn trone, 
I wolle to be pope of Rome, 

My penans for to take ! " 822 

He lette ordeyne shypus fele, 
And fylled hew fulle of wordes wele, 

Hys men mery wyth to 2 make. 825 

Dolys he lette dyjth and dele, 
For to wy?men hym sowles hele, 

To be shyp he toke be gate. 828 

(70) 
Shypmen, 3 bat wer 1 so mykylle of price, 
Dyght her 1 takulle on ryche a-cyse, 

That was fayr and fre. 831 

They drow3 vp sayl and leyd out ore, 
The wynde stode as hei-' lust wore, 

The webur was lybe on le. 834 

They sayled ouei 1 * be salt fome, 
Thorow be grace of God in trone, 

That most ys of powste. 837 

To b«t 4 cyte when be[y] come, 
At be burgeys hous hys yn he nome, 5 

Ther-as woned Emarye. 6 840 

1 MS., after lyf a hole, covering space enough for a letter, 
perhaps e. 2 MS. after to, be crossed out. 

" MS., h is written over y, in Shypmen. 4 R. the. 

6 L. 837 follows in MS., but is crossed out and underlined. 

6 G. Emare. 



Emar&s Son waits on the Lords of the King of Galys. 



(71) 
Emare called he[r] sone, 
Hastely to here come, 

AVyth-oute ony lettynge, 
And sayde, " My dere sone so fre, 
Do a ]y tulle aftur me, 

And pow. shafljt 1 haue my blessynge. 
To-morowe pow. shalle serue yn halle, 
In a kurtylle of ryche palle, 

By-fore pi/s nobulle kyng ; 
Loke, sone, so curtays 2 pow be, 
That no mon fynde chalange to pe, 

In no manere )>ynge ! 

(72) 
When pe kyng ys serued of spycerye, 
Knele pow downe hastylye, 

And take hys bond yn J?yn ; 
And when pow hast so done, 
Take pe kuppe of golde sone, 

And serue hym of pe wyne. 
And what pat he speketh to pe, 
Cum a-non) and telle me, 

On Goddws blessyng and myne ! " 
The chylde wente yn-to pe halle, 
Among 3 fie lordes grete and smalle, 

That lufsumme 4 wer* vnpw lyne. 

(73) 

Then pe lordes pat wei^ grete, 
Wysh and wente to her* mete, 

Men[s]trelles brow3t yn pe kowrs. 
The chylde hem serued so curteysly, 
Alle hym loued pat hym sy, 

And spake hym gret honowres. 
Then sayde alle pat loked hym vpon), 
So curteys a chyld sawe pey nemir non), 

In halle uy yn bowres. 





Emarl called 




lier son, 


843 






and bade him 




do her bid- 




ding, 


846 






On the mor- 




row lie should 




serve in the 




hall before 


849 


the king, 




[leaf 70] 




so courte- 




ously 


852 


that no man 


could take 




exception to 




anything. 




"When the 




king is served 
with spicery, 






kneel down" 


855 


and take his 




hand, 


858 


and offer him 




wine, 




and come tell 




me what he 




says." 


861 






The child 




went inlo the 




hall among 




the great 


864 


lords. 




They washed 




and went 




to meat, 




and minstrels 


867 


brought in 




the courses. 




The child 




served so 




courteously 




as to will the 


870 


love and 


admiration 



873 



R. shalt. 
R. Amonge. 



2 R. curteys. 
4 R. lufsume. 



28 EmarS's Son serves the King, who asks to have him. 



The king 
asked his 
name, and 
he said, " Se 
gramowres.' 



The kynge sayde to hym yn game, 
" Swete sone, what ys by name? " 
" Lorde," x (he seyd) " y liy^th 



.^(."'-/•ainowri's. 



876 



Then the 
king sighed, 



for this was 

name. 

He wept and 
was sorrow 
fill ; 

but still he 
"let be," 
as he looked 
at the child 
and loved 
him. 

But he asked 
the burgess, 
"Is this thy 
son P " and 
was answer- 
ed, "Yes." 



washed after 

meat before 
the spieery. 



and served 
the king so 
well that he 
tailed the 
burgess, 
and said : 
"Give me 
that little 
boy, and I 
will make 



Then bat nobulle kyng 
Toke vp a grete sykynge, 

For hys sone hyghte so ; 
Certys, wyth-owten lesynge, 
The teres out of hys yen gan wryng ; 

In herte he was fulle woo. 
Neuer'-be-lese, he lette be, 
And loked on be chylde so fre, 

And mykelle he louede hym boo. 
The kyng sayde to be burgeys a-non), 
" Swete syr, ys ]>ys by sone 1" 

The burgeys sayde, "^oo." 

(75) 
Then be lordes bat wer* grete, 
W(h)esshen a-^eyn aftyr mete, 

And ben come spycerye. 
The chyld pat was of chere swete, 
On hys kne downe he sete, 

And serued hym curteyslye. 
The kynge called be bwgeys hym tylle, 
And sayde, " Syr, yf hyt be by wylle, 

3yf me b^s ly tylle 2 body ! 
[ shalle hym make lorde of town and towr< 
Of bye halles and of bowre, 

I loue hym specyally." 



879 



882 



885 



888 



891 



894 



89 ; 



900 



(76) 
when he had When he had serued be kyng at wylle, 

served the r J ° J 

king, he went Fayr he wente hys modyr tylle, 

mot her what And tellys her how hyt ys. 

" when he " S° one whew he shalle to chamber wende, 

chamber* Take hys hond at be grete ende, 

KW For he ys by fadur, y-wysse ; 

father, 

1 R. Lord. 

2 MS., after lytylle, cliyide is written and crossed out. 



903 



906 



Emare and her Husband, the King of Gahjs, meet again. 29 



And byd hym come speke vryth Emare, 
That changed her 1 name to Egare, 

In the londe 1 of Galys ! " 
Tlie chylde wente a-jeyn to halle, 
A-monge J>e grete lordes alle, 

And serued on ryche a-syse. 



909 



912 



and bid him 
come speak 
with Binare*, 
wlio called 
herself Egare 1 
in Galys." 
Then the 
child re- 
turned to his 
serving. 



(77) 
When pey wer 1 welle at ese, a-fyne, 
Bothe of brede, ale and wyne, 

They rose vp, more and myn. 
Whew \q kyng shulde to chamber wende, 
He toke hv/s hond at jje grete ende, 

And fayre he helpe hym yn ; 
And sayde, " Syr, yf $our wylle he, 
Take me ^oicr honde and go wyth me, 

For y am of ^owr kynne ! 
3e shulle come speke wyth Emare, 
That chauraged 2 her 1 nome to Egare, 

That berys be whyte chy?tne ! " 



915 



918 



921 



924 



they rose up ; 

and when the 
king was 
going to his 
chamber, 

the child led 
him in, 



and gave him 
Email's 



(78) 

The kyng yn herte was fulle woo, 
Whe?& he herd mynge ]>o, 

Of her pat was hys qwene ; 
And sayde, " Sone, why sayst jwu so ? 
Wher'-to vmb?-aydest bou me of my wo 

That may neuer 1 bene ! " 
Neuwrpeles wyth hym he wente ; 
A-^eyn hem come J)e lady gent, 

In be robe bryght and shene. 
He toke her 1 yn hys amies two, 
For joye pey sowened, both to, 

Such loue was hem by-twene. 



927 



The king was 

BOITOWful 

when he 
heard of her 

who had been 
his queen ; 
but although 

he said this 



930 

he went with 
the child, 
and the la ly 
came to meet 
him in her 
bright robe. 
He took her 
in his arms, 
and tliev both 
swooned for 
936 joy and love. 



933 



(79) 
A joyfull metyng was \er pore, 
Of \at lady, goodly vnbwr gore, 
Frely in armes to folde. 

1 R. lond. - R. changed. 



There was 
great 



939 



30 Emare" s Father decides to pray the Pope to forgive him. 



Mjoioing over Lorde ! glad de was Syr Kad ore, 
And o\ur lordes bat ber 1 wore, 
Semely to be-holde, 
the recovery Of be lady bat wafs] 1 put yn be see, 
thru, had been Thorow grace of God in Trinite, 

put into the ° 

sea - Jjat was keuered of cares colde. 

[leaf 76, bk.] Leue we at be lady whyte as flow, 
we of the And speke we of (her ) fadwr) be emperowr, 

emperor, 

That fyrste by.s tale of y-tolde. 



94: 



94.1 



948 



and remem- 
bered bis sh: 
against his 
daughter. 



He decided to 
so to the 
Pope for 
penance, 



and sent mes- 
sengers to 
find him an 
inn at Rome. 



(80) 

The empemur her fadyr ben 
Wa[s] 2 woxen an olde man, 

And bowjt on hys synne ; 
Of hys bowjtyr Emare, 
That was putte yn-to be see, 

That was so bryght of skynne. 
He bow3t[e] that he wolde go, 
For hys penance to be Pope bo, 

And heuen for to wynne. 
Messengeres he sente forth sone, 
And bey come to be kowrt of Eome, 

To take her lordes inne. 



951 



954 



957 



960 



BinarC 
prayed her 



lord to ac- 
quaint him 
with the 
emperor. 



He agreed, 
and she bade 
him ride witli 
his knights 
to meet that 
great lord. 



(81) 

Emare p?'ayde her lord, 3 be kyng, 
" Syr, a-byde b«t lordys komyng, 

That ys so fayr and ire. 
And, swete syr, yn alle byng, 
A-qweynte 3011 wyth bat lordyng ; 

Hv/t ys worshyp to be." 
The kyng of Galys seyde ban, 
" So grete a lord ys ber non, 

3n alle Crystyante." 
" Now, swete syr, what-euw be-tyde, 
A^ayn b«t grete lord $e ryde, 

And alle by kny^tys wyth be." 



963 



966 



969 



972 



MS. wat. 



MS. Wax. 



3 R. lorde. 



Emares Husband and her Son go before her Emperor-Father. 31 



(82) 
Emare tha-w^te her sone 3ynge, 
A^eyn J»e emperour komynge, 

How pat he sholde done : 975 

" Swete soue, yn alle }>yng, 
Be redy wyth my lord be kyng, 

And be my swete sone ! 978 

Whe» be emperour kysseth by iadur 1 so fre, 
Loke 3yf he wylle kysse the, 

A-bowe be to hym sone ; 981 

And bydde hym come speke wyth Emare, 
That was putte yn-to be see, 

Hym-self 3af be dome." 984 



taught her 
son that if 



the emperor 
kissed him, 
lie should 
say, "Come 
speak with 
Emare, that 
was put into 
the sea." 



(83) 
Now kometh be emperour of pryse ; 
A-jeyn hym rode be kyng of Galys, 

Wyth fulle mykulle pryde. 
The chyld was worby vnpur wede, 
A 2 satte vpon a nobylle stede, 

By hys fadyr syde ; 
And when he mette be emperour, 
He valed hys hode wyth gret honour. 

And kyssed hym yn pat tyde ; 
And opur lordys of gret valowre, 
They also kessed Segramowre ; 

In herte ys not to hyde. 



987 



990 



Now the king 



and the child 
with him 
rode to meet 
the emperor, 



993 and was 

kissed by him 
and oilier 
great lords. 



(84) 
The emperours hert 3 anamered gretlye, 
Of pe chylde pat rode hym by, 

Wyth so louely chere. 
Segramowre, he s[t]ayde hys stede, 
Hys owene fadw 4 toke good hede, 

And opur lordys pat pev were. 
The chylde spake to pe emperour, 
And sayde, " Lord, for byn honour, 

My worde pat pou wylle here : 



The emperor 
greatly loved 
the child. 



999 



Segramowre, 
in the hear- 
ing of his 

father and 

1002 other lords, 



R. fadyr. 
R. herte. 



R. And ; G. A[ndl. See note 
4 R. fadyr. 



1005 

this line. 



bade the 
emperor 



32 Emart's Father, Husband, and Son rejoice together. 



pome speak $q simile come speke vn/tli Emare, 

with his r ^ 

daughter That changede her name to Esmre, 
That was J)y powjpitr dere." 



1008 



asked 
why lie was 
reminded of 
his sorrow ; 



hut was re- 
assured, 
and went 

with the child 
to meet the 
lady. 



(85) 

The emperor The emperowr wax alle pale, 

grew pale, * x ' 

And sayde, " Sone, why vmbraydest me of bale, 

And Jjou may se no bote 1 " 1011 

" Syr, and je wylle go wyth me, 
I shalle pe brynge wyth ]>at lady fre, 

fiat ys louesom on to loke." 1014 

NeuMr-pe-lesse, wyth hym he wente ; 
A^eyn hym come ]>at lady gent, 

Walkynge on her fote. 1017 

And pe emperour a-ly3te J»o, 
And tok'e her yn hys amies two, 

And clypte and kyssed her sote. 1020 

(86) 
Ther was a joyfulle metynge 
Of pe emperour and of pe kynge, 

And also of Emare j 1023 

And so per 1 was of Syr [SJegramowr, 
That aftyr was emperour ; 

A fulle gode man was he. 1026 

A grette feste per was holde, 
Of erles and barones bolde, 

As testymonyeth pjs story. 1029 

Thys ys on of Brytayne layes, 
That was vsed by olde dayes, 

Men callys " playn pe garye." x 1032 

Iheso, 2 pat settes yn Jry trone, 
So graunte vs wyth pe to w[o]ne, 3 

In )?y perpetualle glorye ! Amen. 4 1035 

Explicit Emare. 



and a great 
feast was 
given. 



This is one of 
the old lays of 
Britain. 



Jesus, bring 
us to Thy per- 
petual glory. 



1 Playn[t] >' E-garye ? See note on the line. 

2 R. Jhesn. 3 MS. wene. 

4 R. omits Amen and Explicit Emare. 



o3 



NOTES. 



I/1-12. The longest introductory prayer in any English romance. 
The Thornton Morte Arthure comes next with 11 lines. The explanation 
(13-18) seems to be unique. 

I/3. Probably ]>at should be omitted as Gough (G.) suggests (On the 
Middle English Metrical Romance of Emare, Kiel, 1900, p. 37). Cf. 
Duke Rowlande and Sir Ottuell of Spayne (Eng. Charl. Rom., Part II): 
'"God," he said, "J?at alle schatt dighte & dele" (490) ; " — godde j^at 
diede on rode pat alie schatt deme & dighte" (1268-69); "1 vowe to 
god Jjou schali a-bye, pat arte schatte deme & dele"' (1316-17). The 
three attributes alluded to are the powers of governing, apportioning, 
and judging. In 1. 42, Arthur has the power to apportion gifts and 
govern ; in 1. 826, these terms are applied to alms-giving. 

1/6. On the genitive without ending, cf. G. (Dissertation, p. 7). It 
is impossible to say whether this usage is due to minstrel or scribe. 

I/7. Probably \y should be omitted (G., following Holthausen, 
Dissertation, p. 37). 

I/9. One of the numerous conventionalisms in which the romances, 
especially those written in the tail-rhyme stanzas, abound. About 140 
lines of Emare are found elsewhere, often identical, sometimes with 
slight changes. The number of romances in which the same expres- 
sion occurs (often more than once in several) is sometimes nearly 20, 
and rarely less than 5. I have collected repetitions, to the extent of 
many hundreds, of conventional phrases in the text ; but as limited 
space will not admit the complete list, I cpiote them only when they 
have some peculiar interest. Collections may be found in editions of 
various romances by Kolbing, Zupitza, Zielke and others. A detailed 
study of this subject might throw light on the relationships of various 
members of the different "schools" of romance-makers, which I believe 
existed in mediaeval England. 

I/14. euery a. Originally, doubtless, ylke a. Cf. 11. 114, 166. 

I/16-17. sholde — speke. Here as elsewhere G. emends to avoid hiatus ; 
but 1 am not sure how far this offended the minstrel's ear. I have 
noticed 36 cases of its occurrence, and 13 others which are doubtful. 
In 11. 16, 17, 275, 302, 437, 611, 743, it is avoided by adding an -n, thus 
giving the poem a more pronouncedly Midland character ; in 11. 41, 65, 
380,725 (identical), 35, 113, 481, 581, 666, 740, 914 it occurs in con- 
nection with a pause in the sense, and was therefore perhaps not felt ; 
in 18 other cases, noted under the different lines, it may be avoided 
by some slight change or addition. But the popular character of these 
rime coue'e romances leads me to think that all such improvements, unless 
warranted by other MSS., are too arbitrary to be of much use. 

2/25-27. The title emperour suggests the seven versions in which 
the father is the head of the Holy Roman Empire ; but the name 
EMARE. D 



34 Notes. Page 2, lines 31-57. 

Artyus was probably introduced because lays were usually associated 
with it. But cf. M.A. 275-76. 

2/31. Perhaps: "He bad weddeddc a lady." For a varying pro- 
nunciation of lady, cf. 11. 476, 632, 638. 

2/33. Walrus-tusks were made up into articles of household furni- 
ture as early as King Alfred's time (cf. Alfred's Orosius, I, 1). 

2/34. G. conjectures the Byzantine Mirene (Dissertation, p. 31). The 
most famous Irene was Empress of Constantinople, contemporary with 
Charlemagne, whom there was talk of her marrying. Her son Constan- 
tine VI was also thought of for Charlemagne's daughter Rotrud (Gibbon, 
op. cit., V, 294). But the name Erayne is possibly corrupted from 
Elayne (Helene), who was widely connected with the story through 
La Belle Helene de Constantinople. According to Trivet and in La 
Manekine, she was the heroine's cousin, the senator's wife. Or perhaps 
Erayne = Igraine, Uther's wife, Arthur's mother. 

2/36. "So ciirtays" or "curtays lady was none," or "So curtays 
lady was none" ? Cf. 11. 40, 64, 74, and 31, 71, 197, 476, 632, 638. 

2/37. G. best[e]. 

2/49-50. The only other case of identical rhyme is easily emended 
(934-35). Perhaps here we should read come or home for borne (50). 
Cf. "Jjat was so comly corn" (Amis, 1431 ; cf. also 1950, 2220); " j>at 
riche was & comly korne " (Dvke Rowlande and Sir Ottuell of Spayne, 
1193) ; "be beste kny^t y-core" (Sir Ferumbras, 766). 

2/53. G. lord[e]. 

2/55. G. adds [so]; but fayr seems to be dissyllabic at times, cf. 11. 
163, 197, 437, and especially 1. 403 which resembles 1. 55. 

2/57. Abro = Abra, probably the mediaeval Latin word for female 
servant, translated in 15th century glosses (Wright, A.S. and O.E. 
Vocabularies, 1884, 1, 623/22 ; 691/40) as boivre-mayde, buriooman. The 
word was known to iElfric (op. cit., index), perhaps through the Septu- 
agint (cf. also Du Cancje). More remotely it is Greek ("A0pa or "A&pa), 
but supposed to come from an Oriental source (Sophocles in his lexicon 
gives a Chaldean equivalent). 

In the sense of handmaid, it was perhaps given to Abra, daughter 
of St. Hilaire, Bishop of Poitiers (Hist. Lit. de la France, I, Pt. II, 140, 
142, 154) ; but scarcely to the Saracen princess, sister of the sultan of 
Babylon (Amadis of Greece, Pt. II, ch. 1 ff.). I supposed that it might 
have come direct from Arabic (on the hypothesis of a Spanish or Portu- 
guese original for Amadis); but in this language^46Za,a common name for 
women meaning she-camel, and familiar through the heroine of the ancient 
Bedouin romance of Antar, seems to be the nearest counterpart. Still, the 
corruption of Abla into Abra is imaginable. Further, an Abda is men- 
tioned by Amari (Storia dei Musuhnani di Sicilia, Firenze, 1854-72, II, 
448, with note 5) as the name of a Fatemite princess of Egypt, who died 
about the end of the 10th century, possessed of great treasure, including 
" Sicilian robes." But for the curious coincidence I should not have 
mentioned this name, the other derivation being more likely. 

As to the meaning of the presence of the name in Emare', I am in 
doubt. The nurse or "mistress" of the heroine appears in a compara- 
tively small group of versions, and is usually nameless (Clarissa or 
Beatrix in Helene, Benigna in Mai). The only hypothesis that I can 
suggest is, that in the French, Abra or a similar Oriental name was 
connected with the magic cloth (perhaps the "amerayle dow^ter" was 



Notes. Pages 3, 4, lines 58-103. 35 

so called); and that the English minstrel, knowing the Latin ahra 
(perhaps from the Septuagint, perhaps from glosses similar to those in 
Wright), transferred it, as he might suppose correctly, to the person 
whose station it indicated. 

3/58 ff. But Trivet's Constance learned the seven sciences and 
various tongues {pp. cit. p. 5). For the learned heroine, cf. Le Bone 
Florence of Borne (58-63, and MS. fr. 24384, fol. 203 b), Guy of Warwick 
(80-92). In Partonopeus de Blots (Crapelet, 1834, 4572-4614, and 
Buckley, Roxburghe Club, 1862, 3204-27) she studies until she masters 
the art of magic. 

3/72. G. omits ice. 

3/77. weddewede. In the Wars of Alexander, 5089, 1558, Morte 
Arthure, 950, 4285, is the form wedowe, which would give wedowhede. 

3/78. This line evidently alludes to the emperor's licentious character. 
The abrupt change of subject, and the broken rhyme-scheme hint at an 
omission of some matter. Cf. note on 1. 187. 

3/79. G. Sone [jjer-]after, to avoid hiatus. 
3/8o. G. kynge [out] of, to avoid hiatus and inorganic -e. 
3/82-83. The school of Palermo was famous throughout Europe 
under the rule of the Normans, who fostered Mussulman work there. 
After the Sicilian Vespers, the workmen spread their art through Italy, 
and thence into all parts of Europe. 
3/83. G. worfylye was. 

3/85. Perhaps : " Syr Tergaunte hyjte \>at nobylle kny^t." The 
usual forms of the name are Tervagant and Termagant, the latter a 
corruption (cf. Skeat, note on Chaucer, B 2000, and Ritson, Anc. Eng. 
Metr. Bom., Ill, 257 ff., for quotations and discussion). Common as are the 
two latter forms (cf. especially Bevis of 'Hampton, index), referring always 
to a Saracen deity, I have not found Tergaunte elsewhere. But this 
Tergaunte is apparently a Christian king whose father conquered the 
Sultan of Babylon (cf. Introduction, p. xxxi, n. 5, and note on 1. 158 ff. 
below). 

3/86-88. The connection seems to be : presented . . . with, 1. 87 
being parenthetical. L. 86. G. [a-]ryght. L. 88. G. cloth [e]. 

4/91. Perhaps: and [of] rubyes. Cf. 1. 139. Topaze. Supposed to 
have the power to keep water from boiling, to cool men's passions and 
to kill toads (Pannier, Les Lapidaires Francais, Paris, 1882, index). 
Bnbyes. Mentioned only by the supposititious Mandeville, who gives 
them a chief place, as conferring favour and love, curing sick animals, 
and generally comforting the wearer's heart (Pannier, op. cit.). 

4/94. crapowtes. Not mentioned by the French lapidaries. Cf. 
N. E. I). Crapaud, Crapautee for other quotations. It occurs in the 
Northern romance Thomas of Erceldoune (52). nakette. Perhaps 
(n)achate, as Dr. Murray also suggests. The text shows a tendency 
to write e for a, as: cledde, wesh, wes ; but Destruction of Troy has 
achates, Wars of Alexander, amis. Or, the word may be some derivative 
(perhaps corrupted) from nacre = mother-of-pearl. There is also a rare 
stone echite, but this is more remote phonetically. Cf. also Godefroi 
under nace = cloth of gold. 
4/97. G. cloth [hytj. 
4/103. Gr. The emperoTw [pan]. 



36 Notes. Pages 4, 5, lines 113-152. 

4/113. asowr. Cf. N. E. D. for quotations. The colour seems to have 
been greatly beloved in the Middle Ages. 

4/i 16. G. cloth[e]. 

4/i 18. Cf. Sir Gawayne, 1. 613: "As mony burde J?er-aboute bad 
ben seuen. wynter in toime." 

5/i22. G. [Dame] Idoyne. Perhaps Ydoyne? But the word is a 
dissyllable in Cursor Mundi (20) and Gower's Gonfessio Amantis (VI, 
87 ( J), where the romance is mentioned ; also in Sir Degrevant (1477-78), 
wbere the tale is said to have been represented on the tapestry of a bed. 
The story seems to have originated in England in the 12th century (An 
English Miscellany, Oxford, 1901, p. 386 ft'.); but the English romance 
Sir Amadas (Amadace) borrows nothing but the hero's name from the 
French. 

5/125. trewe-loue flour. Herb Paris (Paris Quadrifolia), similar 
to trillium. The setting of its four leaves was supposed to resemble 
a truedove knot. Cf. Sir Degrevant (1032, 1039, 1484) ; the Awntyrs 
off Arthure (354, 510) ; Sir Gaivayne (612) ; Bauf Coil$ear (473). 
Here the flower seems to have been used to help the love-charm in 
the magic robe. 

5/127. carbunkulle. Supposed to shine with a. red light in darkness. 
safere. Good for the general health, especially diseases of the eyes, 
head and tongue, a safe-guard against poverty, prison, and the machin- 
ations of enemies (Pannier, op. cit.). 

5/128. Kassydonys. Its qualities are given vaguely as contributing 
to health and prosperity. Cf. casydoynes (Cleanness, 1471), calcydoyne 
(Pearl, 1002); also calcidoynes, Wars of Alexander (5274). onyx. An 
evil stone which brings bad dreams and strife (Pannier, op. cit.). 

5/130. Deamondes. Especially prized for the working of enchant- 
ment and against enchantment by others (Pannier, op. cit.). 

5/132. And. Possibly repeated from 1. 131. Qy. Sing? Cf. note 
on 1. 151 below. 

5/134. Trystram and Isowde. From the 12th century on, one of the 
most influential of romances. Here the forms of the names seem to be 
English (cf. Cursor Mundi, 17). 

5/136. G. [a-]ryght. 

5/137-44. These lines, almost identical with 89-96, may have been 
copied twice by mistake ; but the detail suits the context here better 
than in stanza 8, hence, I judge that they may have been used there in 
place of lost matter giving more account of Tergaunte. 

5/146. This romance, arising in the 12th century, was almost as 
popular as the two preceding; and like them was early known hi 
England, even if it did not actually originate there. 

5/151. kny^tusand senatowres. Possibly here as in 1. 131 the pattern 
suddenly intrudes upon the materials ; but names of stones are expected. 
If the poem was at any time taken down from hearing, the line might 
have been corrupted from " Ther wer onyx and centaureus," which 
would rhyme correctly with vertues. My authority for centaureus is 
Heinrich von Neustadt (quoted by Smith, Shakespeare's Pericles and 
Apollonius of Tyre, Philadelphia, 1898, pp. 75-76) ; the nearest that 
Pannier gives is ceraunus. The plant, centaurus, was well known. 

5/152. TI13 "vertues" of emeralds were supposed to foretell the 



Notes. Pages 6, 7, lines 154-188. 37 

future, cure tertian fever, bring wealth, protect in battle, storm and 
lightning, cool the passions, strengthen the sight, give eloquence, etc. 

6/154. Koralle. Protects against storm and lightning, increases 
crops, and chases devils. 

6/155. Perydotes. Supposed to be a protection at night against 
devils and bad dreams, crystalle. Valued for its use in lighting fire, 
and supposed to increase nurses' milk. (Fannier, op. cit.) 

6/156. garnettes. See N.E.D. for origin and quotations of this 
word. Not mentioned by the French lapidaries. 

6/157. oon. G. was [£er] Don. Cf. Dissertation, p. 41, note on I. 
157, for this use of one. But perhaps we should read don. Cf. made 
(121) and dyght (133). 

6/158 ff. The " sowdan " of Babylon was a familiar figure in English 
romances of the 14th century. Cf. especially the two redactions of 
Fierabras, known as Sir Ferumbras and the Sowdone of Babylone; also, 
the southern Octavian, in which he is said to have conquered "Gales 
and Spayne" among other lands (907 ff.); in the northern Octavian also, 
the " sowdan " is presumably of Babylon. The allusion is not, of course, 
to the city of that name, but vaguely to the Orient, according to Graf 
(op. cit. 4, 552), to the sovereigns Ajubidi of Egypt and Syria (cf. Archivio 
. . . di Storia Patria, IV, 552). " Undoubtedly the passage alludes to 
some romance, perhaps of the Guillaume d'Orange cycle, influenced by 
the Crusades. LnFoidque de Candie (by Herbert le Due, circ. 1170) the 
hero loves a Saracen princess who gives him a sleeve embroidered with 
gems, and also conquers the Sultan of Babylon. The poem called Tancre' 
1 have not been able to find. Again, Richard Cceur de Lion (in the 
English romance) fights with Saladin at Babylon and there wins much 
treasure. 

6/162. testymoyeth. " Si con l'escriture tesmoigne " (La Mule sans 
Frein, 885), "'Si.'com tiesmogne li escris " (Mouskes, 18695), and else- 
where. The line is almost certainly translated, as is 1. 1029. The verb, 
which I have not seen elsewhere, looks like a hybrid of testifies and 
tesmoigner, or else is formed from the noun testimony. Sir Gowther (309) 
doubtless translates the same expression : " po testament^ pus j?ei sey." 

6/163-64. A maiden was supposed to be able to tame the unicorn. 
The two are represented, also with flowers and birds, on a 15th century 
tapestry in the Musee de Cluny at Paris. 

6/168. On the extensive use of "ymagerye" in Sicilian work, cf. 
Introduction, p. xxxi, with n. 1. Romances, legends of saints, historic 
characters were attempted. 

6/170. sone. Qy. sone or soon? Cf. 11. 158, 173. 

6/175. G". grel[e] loue. 

6/176. in specyalte. Perhaps, as in Barbour's Bruce (VII, 246), the 
sense is, in special liking or partiality. 

6/181-82. I see no reason for the optative here. Perhaps we should 
read par or por(e) and wor(e) (also in 721-22) as in 832-33, this last 
being singular=was, as it is still used in Mid-Yorkshire to-day. 

6/182. G. 16ng[e]. Cf. 11. 355, 364, 718. This causes hiatus. 

6/184. Gr. wolde [horn hym] wende. 

6/185. leue dt. Hiatus. 

7/187-88. Kyng evidently refers to Tergaunte, and 1. 188 has been 
corrupted by introducing the word emperour to show the change of 



38 Notes, Pages 7-9, lines 195-265. 

subject. This breaking of the thought between the seventh and eighth 
lines may be a sign that the robe passage (78-187) has been foisted in 
from another source. This may have been a longer version of the same 
story (Mai describes an azure samite, set with gold and precious stones, 
and a magic robe appears in many versions and kindred folk-tales). 
The character of the passage bears out this hypothesis : it is altogether 
out of scale for a lay, but can be paralleled by many descriptive passages 
in romances, French and English, particularly the former ; it contains 
more than a tenth part of the poem, but is mechanical and full of repeti- 
tions, as if the author had remembered but imperfectly, and so was 
thrown upon his own invention, which was not great (cf. the robe 
passage in Erec et Enide (6735-809), which is on a similar plan and 
scale). 

7/195. G. forth [>an]. 

7/200. G. go[e]th. But goth is a common spelling in the N.E. 
Midlands, though here it makes the line abort. 

7/201. chare. This vehicle is mentioned frequently and much earlier 
than the quotations given in N. E. D. (cf. Kyng of Tars, 339, 354, 
and for a long description of a hunting-chare, Squire of Low Degree, 
739 ff.). 

7/210. Lijte of. Hiatus. 

7/21 1. Qy. both [vp-]on? 

_ 7/211-12. Probably fete— swpte(cf. 1017, 1020), as G. suggests; other- 
wise, we have seven successive e-rhymes. 

8/223-24. G. paraphrases, according to Amis, 571-2, but this is 
unnecessary. In Sir Degarre (Auchinleck MS. 827-28) we find : 

"That all his herte and his thour, 
Hire to loue was i-bro\vt." 

8/226. an-amored. The word seems rare until much later. N. E. D. 
quotes Robert of Brunne (8170) and Chaucer (L. G. W., 1606). 

8/229. metewhyle. I have not found this word elsewhere ; but Morte 
Arthure gives mette-while (3903) = measured, i. e. little while ; and also 
mette = mete (2491). 

8/239. Popus Bull/as. Cf. Potolus Pystolus and Parabolus of Sola- 
mon (Degrevant, 1438-39). Possibty, attempts at Latinization without 
knowledge of the language, perhaps to give a learned effect, but more 
probably to be regarded only as W. Midland endings. 

Here the Pope's assent is taken for granted ; elsewhere, he is bribed 
by help against the Saracens, and then consents only because it is 
revealed to him in a vision that no harm shall come. 

8/244. " And when vpon' her hyt was don," improves the rhythm. 

8/245-46. She seemed untainted by earth, that is, supernatural in 
her beauty. Cf. G. (Dissertation, 37-39) on a possible mythological 
significance for the robe. 

8/251. G. omits syr. 

9/261. G. 30H [ay], but ^ou [now] would be more to the point. 

9/264. \>home. An indication that \> was little more than d or 
t for the scribe. In other cases: s(h)uch (702), she s(he)wed (730), 
w(h)esshen (890), the proximity of an h may have led to its repetition. 

9/265. Qy- right[e] (adverb) ? 



Notes. Pages 9-11, lines 266-342. 39 

9/266. G. [my 3 ty] othe. But cf. Degrevant (193-94) : 
"Than the eorl wax worth (= wroth) 
And swore many a gret owth." 
ijrete is probably right, notwithstanding the hiatus. 

9 270. G. [ryche], to avoid repetition of nobulle (268). Cf. 11. 590, 644. 

9/271-72. drynke. Cf. Amis and Amiloun, drink (2191) rhyming 
with lesing (2192), with lesing-Jnng-king (1587-90-93-96), with Jang 
(1666-67), with fnng^ing-wepeing (1707-10-13-16). For dryng = 
drink, cf. ibid., ed. Kolbing, p. xxi; for thing = think (seem), and 
thinke = thing (object) cf. Robson, Three Metrical Romances, index. 

9/273. skate. Cf. Ayenbite of Inwit, ssat (45). The form is rare 
but a correct development of O.E. sceat. 

9/275. G- Wyth-owte[n]. 

9/278. G. [fer] fro. Cf. 11. 349, 353 suggest that boot was long 
enough to stand for a metrical unit itself; 1. 674 contains an inor- 
ganic -e. 

9/280. Qv. hvm [vm] be-J>owgnt? Cf. Isumbras, 1. 426, ISglamour, 
1. 73, Towneley Plays, 5/123, Ywaine, 1. 1583, Alexius (598). 

9/281. haclde cdle. Hiatus. Qy. hadde [hyt] ? 

IO/287. G. And toke [hym] up [full] hastyly. The line scans, as it is, 
though anapaestic. 

IO/295. G. ajeyn[es]. Qy. a-^eijn, or wrouxjhte, with hiatus ? The 
former reads better. 

IO/298. lasshed. In this sense the word seems peculiarly Northern. 
Cf. York Plays (xxxi, 10, xlvi, 37), Cleanness (707), Morte Arthur e (2801. 
1459), Destruction of Troy (6789). In Jamison, the word has similar 
meanings, and, according to the quotation, also in the Mid-Yorks. 
Glossary, although Clough Robinson makes a special application of it. 

IO/307. G. They sowjt her, etc. 

H/326. Practically the same time as in La Manekine, where the 
heroine drifted from Hungary to Berwick (eight days, 1. 1168), and 
from Berwick to Rome (twelve days, 4761). According to Trivet, she 
was first three, and then five years at sea (Originals and Analogues, pp. 
13, 39). 

H/329. ytrked yjre. The idea here is probably ordained. The word 
parked occurs repeatedly in Cleanness (652, 758, 1708), Wars of Alexander 
(114, 2449, 4894), in Destruction of Troy (414, 5595, 10738, 11265, etc.), 
sometimes from O.E. gearcian = to prepare, sometimes from a word 
akin to the modern jerk, meaning, to rain upon, as blows. 

II/335. G. thurste and hunger, which reads much better. The 
phrase is repeated in 1. 683. 

II/338. Galys. G. (Dissertation, 31-32) sums up the evidence for 
Wales and Galicia. This form occurs, alike for each country, with the 
accent on either syllable. The attempt to connect the poem with the 
Arthur cycle suggests that the French author intended Wales, while the 
English minstrel may have translated Galicia, through the popularity 
of St. James of Compostella, to whom there are many allusions in 14th 
century literature. But for an additional reason favouring Galicia, see 
note on 1. 481 If. 

II/342. Kadore. Cadwr, Cadeir, son of Geraint map Erbin, men- 
tioned in a triad, was Arthur's sword-bearer (Romania, xxx, 11-13). 



40 Notes. Pages 11-14, lines 348-436. 

Mouskes (21009 ff.) mentions an historic Kados (= Cadoc, also Kadore) r 
Seigneur of Gaillon (in Normandy, but suggestive of Gaille = Galles = 
Gaule), who was prominent at the battle of Bouvines (1212), and may 
have suggested the introduction of this name into the lai. 

II/348. le. Perhaps shore as in Destruction of Troy (2806). 

I2/349 ff. Cf. G. (Emare, p. 36, note on 349 seq.) for an interesting 
emendation of this stanza ; but the participle in and is not warranted. 
Cf. on 1. 793 below. 

12/352. went[e] forth [vp-]on ? G. went forth [up-]on. 

I2/360. Only in La Manekine is the change of name emphasized as 
here. There also the two names Joie and Manekine have meanings. 
This idea is carried further in Emare. In the concealment of origin, 
the influence of the Swan-maiden stories appears, in the opening that 
it affords for a false accusation. 

12 /363- Qy- hom[e] or (G.) horn [he] ? Cf. 1. 708. 

12/365. Cf. Havelok, 11. 1022, 1821, 1843, 1882 for this use of the 
word. I have not found the simile elsewhere. 

12/371. G. my3^[en]. Qy. my ? t[e] ? 

13/387- Wyth = in company with, or in honour of? 

I3/391 ff. That this detail was in the original is suggested by La 
Filla tie VEmperadar Contasti (Bomania, xxx, 528) : 

" E lo rey . . . menga molt volenter, e la donzella lo servi molt 
cortesame?it al mils que ella poch, e lo rey se pres molt esment del gran 
servey que la donzella fey a e de la sua bellesa e de les sues faysso?is qui 
er&n tant plasents e tan humils." 

I3/392. kurtulle. Evidently both this and the surcoat were made 
of the magic cloth. The allusion to the child's kirtle (848) seems to be 
a reflection of this passage. 

13/397. G. kyng [he]. 

I3/398. So fayr a lady he sy^ neuw non), or. So fayr a lady he sy$ 
neuwr non', or, So fayr a lady he sy^ nemir non> ? 

I4/415. Cf. G. (Dissertation, p. 43). The phrase is too common in 
14th and 15th century works to need special quotation. The stuff was 
evidently fashionable. Cf. note on 1. 430. 

H/422 f. This applies more nearly to La Comtesse d'Anjoa, in which 
the steward (constable) did send for the heroine to teach his children 
(not "courtesy" but needlework). Why Kadore makes up this story, I 
fail to see. 

I4/428. be. Optative, perhaps to qualify the very strong state- 
ment. 

I4/430. Probably, as also 451, corrupted from 415. Pay = rei, 
king, and " ryche ray " = riclie rei, occur commonly in earlier works, 
as Sir Perceval of Galles, the Awntyrs off Arthure, and others ; also 
ray is found in the Toumeley Plays, Wars of Alexander, etc., but roy in 
the Morte Arthure, Torrent of Portyngale, etc. 

14/433. Gr. [full] verament. But rerament is usually unmodified. 
The line is short, unless kyng was written with an inorganic -e, or the 
pause represented a syllable. 

H/434. Aftyr hys modj'r he sent, or, modyr he sent? 

I4/436. G. brow3t[e] forth [full] hastely. ' 



Notes. Pages 14-16, lines 439-504. 41 

I4/439. Gr. The cloth [up-]on, etc. 

14/440. G. [y-]dyght. Cf. 1. 395. 

14/441. And is perhaps superfluous ; the line is seemingly appositive 
with she, perhaps with being understood. 

14/443. G. 1 sawe neuer [any] wommon. The implication was that 
she was a fairy. Cf. Mai, col. 60, 11. 5-7. 

I5/458 ff. Usually the feast is described at length (notably in La 
Manekine, 11. 2153-2361). Cf. also other romances, Squire Lo\v Deg., 
313-26, Morte Arthure, 176-238, Bomf Coityar, 183-221. The brevity 
here shows how out of proportion is the passage concerning the robe. 

15/461. G. Duke [and]. But the line is conventional as it stands. 
Possibly the -e was silent and the pause filled the foot. Cf. La Manekine, 
2365 ff.: 

" Li rois est demoures arrier, 
Et avoeques li sa moillier. 
Tant s'entraiment andui de cuer," etc. 

15/472. G. Moch[e]. 

15/479. Gr. (note on 1. 479), following Morsbach, Conceyued[e]. 
From parallel cases, I should read Conceyued. 

I6/481 ff. The King of France may be Charlemagne, and the allusion 
to his wars in Spain (cf. note on 1. 158 ff), but I think not. I have 
given reasons in the Lntroduction for holding that the French lay arose 
in the first half of the 13th century. In 1212 occurred the last great 
Saracenic attempt upon Europe. The King of Castile, hard pressed by 
the Moors, sent abroad for help, especially to France, in that his 
daughter Blanche had married Louis VIII. At the battle of Tolosa 
the Moors were utterly routed, and all Christendom rejoiced. Such an 
event must have influenced poetic imnginations long after, perhaps the 
more so because at this very period Carolingian traditions (which deal 
so largelv with Saracenic wars) were deliberately fostered (Petite 
Dutaillis, "Louis VLII, Paris, 1894, 12-14). After some time, the King 
of France would naturally become the chief personage (perhaps through 
reflection from Charlemagne), and Galicia might replace Castile as being 
more familiar. A degree of support is given to this hypothesis by the 
facts that in La Filla de VEmperador Contasti, the husband is King of 
Castile ; and in Mai, the king's uncle is King of Castile and oppressed 
by Saracens (col. 99 ff.). 

I6/484. [He] sente? LI. 483-84-85 all begin with And. G. After 
£>e kyng sente of Galys. 

I6/494. G. sent[e]. 

I6/495. Cf. note on 1. 461. 

I6/496. G. st[e]ward [he]. But perhaps st[e~\u-ard alone would 
suffice, w being vocalic, as in Ha velok, 281, 453, 1144,. etc. ; Pearl, 821, 
830, 942, and elsewhere. 

I6/499. G. yn [fjylke] place. If yn place can bear the meaning " as 
it was her place to do," the short line must be emended differently, 
perhaps wente [{?«><]. 

I6/503. A fayr chyld borne and a godele. 

1 6/504. Kyngus marke. In Havelok (601, 2139-47) the hero had 
on his right shoulder a cross which shone like a carbuncle at night. 
In La Filla del Bey di Dacia: "una rosetta la quale egli avea nella 
gola, che nacque con essa" (Wesselofsky, p. 32). Here, a double 



42 Notes. Pages 16-21, lines 505-654. 

crown ? In several versions, the union of the two kingdoms, France 
and England, by this marriage is emphasized (notably, Yst, Fa£). 

1 6/505. "They crystened hyt," reads better. 

I6/506. G. And hym called, etc. 

I6/51 1. G yn [gret] hyjynge. From the repetition of h\jt in tbree 
successive lines, I judge that 1. 511 may have read: " He wrou^te [|>e 
letter]," etc. 

I7/523. G. hym jaf. Qy. 3af [to], or }af[e] ? 

17/524. The same sum paid in La Manekine (quarante sols, 3060). 
Read fowrty ? Cf. note on 1. 496. 

n/532. G. letter [>an]. 

I7/538. G. " Heddes thre he hadde there." 

I7/539. The most monstrous creation in any version. In La Mane- 
kine, it had four feet and was hideous to look upon. 

17/540. feltred. This occurs in Cleanness (224), Morte Arthure 
(1078), Sir Goivthev (74, 748), Toivneley Plays (377/318, 102/65), and in 
Mid-Yorks. Glossary to-day, meaning clotted. 

I8/554. G. kyng [full], and omits full from 1. 555. 

18/557- Gr. That euer y man [y-]bor[e]n was. Qy. That euur man 
y boi[e]n was ? 

I8/572. G. " Her to serue[n] at her wylle." 

I8/575. The messenger's journey was entirely by land, and accord- 
ing to Trivet, " der Biiheler " and others, the old queen's castle seems 
to have been mid-way in a two-days' journey. This geography is 
reasonable only in the case of Trivet, as "der Biiheler" places the court 
at London. 

I9/582. G. pat rafte hym, etc. 

I9/585. G. In fyre. 

I9/588. towne. A word often on the lips of minstrels of the market- 
place. 

19/598-99. "The messenger || kndwe no gyle, 

But rode horn || mony a myle." 

19/6o6. de[l]fulle. Warranted by Cursor Mundi (MS. Fairfax, 768), 
Sir Gawayne (560), Boberd of Cysyle (Utterson, p. 14), Cleanness (400), 
etc. ; but Cath. Anglic, gives also drefulle = terribilis. 

I9/607. stode yn. Hiatus. G. stode yn [hys]. 

19/6o8. sivonynge. Probably soivenyuge, cf. 1. 284. 

20/6i6. G. [f^'er] be. 

20/625. G. [J?an] sayde. 

20/628. Loke [>at], etc.? 

2O/632. He is ashamed on me, a simple lady, is the construction. 

2O/635. So in Dacia (pp. 18-19) : "ella non puote quasi essere piu 
gentile donna ch'ella ee, ne meglio nata." 

2O/639. hond[e]. The scribe wrote the abbreviation of what was 
perhaps to him the more familiar plural. 

2I/652-54. This description of costume seems peculiar to Emare. 
It suggests a time when short surcoats were the fashion, but long sur- 
coats were still remembered. From its explanatory character, I judge 
that it may have been an addition by the English minstrel. 



Notes. Pages 21-23, lines 655-732. 43 

21/655. G. a-fer[e]de. Also in 1. 698. 

21/657. G- chylde [un]to. 

21/66o/ Cf. Biih (3047). " Das das scliiff nam manigen stosz." 

21/66i. G. chyld [by-]gan. Cf. 1. 727. 

21/66i ff. Curiously enough, Grower's version is the only other in 
which this detail occurs. Cf. 11. 1078-81: 

"And tho sche tok hire child in honde 
And yaf it sowke, and evere among 
Sche wepte, and otherwhile song 
To rocke with hire child aslepe." 

But it is probable, in the absence of other close correspondences, that 
the two descriptions are independent of each other. 

21/669. The emendation on grmvf is admissible as far as rhymes 
go (cf. 219-222-225-228) ; but seems unnecessary. The form growth 
may be the gnqt of Cleanness (810) from grucchen (= usually complain 
but there accost). But in Mid-Yorks. to-day there is a preterite gruot, 
of which in this MS. groivht may be a corruption. 

22/685-S7. In the versions in which the second flight is to Borne, 
the rescuer is often a senator, sometimes the Bope or a cardinal. In 
La Belle Helene he is called Joseran, a name which might have been 
corrupted to Iurdan ; but the exile whom he and his wife receive is the 
princess Blaisance, whose sufferings form a parallel to those of the 
heroine. According to Enikel and Buheler, as in Emare, he is a 
burgess. 

22/688-89. Cf - 343-44. G. Eeuery [mornyng]. 

22/691. G. J>[ylke]. 

22/692. G. [water-]sycfe. Possibly [Tiber] as this river is mentioned 
in Mai, Enikel and La Manehine — all fairly closely related to Ema/rd. 

22/694. Does by \e brymme mean by the shore, or by the sea? In 
the sense of torrent, flood, it occurs in Sir Gan-agne (2172), Cleanness 
(365). Wars of Alexander (4080), seemingly in a Northern usage. This 
passage is uncertain, but 11. 352-53 suggest that the boat was on the 
shore, therefore by the sea. But the other interpretation is usually given. 

22/697. G. The cloth [up-] on. 

22/700. G. [a-]ryght. Or, Jjoujtfe]? 

22/704. "Lord," she sayde, "y hette Egarye." 

23/715. G. What M [euer]. Or, What [so] |>at she wylle craue? 

23/716. G. hyt wyll[e]. 

23/722. G. mete[s]. But cf. 7/218, 13/401, and note on 1. 181 above. 

23/723. Cf. La Manekine (6403) : "Tout a son voloir a este." 

23/727. G. [Segramour] by-gan, both for the rhythm and to avoid 
repetition of eh ild. 

23/731. G. nor[i]to\vre = curtesye and thewe, 1. 38. 

23/732. So in Mai, she had not laughed in eight years; and in 
La Manekine (6267-72) : 



44 Notes. Pages 23-26, lines 733-819. 

" Mais onques une fois n'i rist, 
Ne un mot de canchon n'i dist, 
Ne ne vesti dras de couleur. 
Tousjors en dolour u en pleur 
On en griete ou en pensee 
Est toute sa vie tornee." 
23/733-38. Cf. Sir Degarre (273-74) : 

" Bi that hit was ten jer old, 
Hit was a fair child, and a bold." 
23/737. So Mai (col. 196, 11. 25-26) : 
" do wart er so kurtis 
daj er an lobe behielt den pris," 
and 11. 21-22: "man lerte in ze alien zlten 

diu ors schone riten." 
24/742. cler of vyce. Perhaps taken directly from the Fr. a cler vis. 
The word vyce for face is uncommon, but occurs as vyse in Pearl (254), 
vys in Richard Camr de Lion (3187, 3406). 
24/754. G. [of] aventowres. 

24/757. G. kyng [he]. Or, [Then] sayde the kyng? 
24/764-68. A singular disregard of the usage of thou and ye. Cf. 
also 11. 965-66, 971-72, 1005-8. 

24/769. G. The kyng \>e letter toke to rede. 

24/773- Usually, "Alias!" he seide, "tliat I was boren ! " (Degarre, 
83; similarly, Havelok, Roberd of Cysyle, and others.) G. euer [on erj^e] 
born y was. "That y eiiwr bor[e]n was" introduces less change. Cf. 
note on 1. 557. 

25/776. G. Thys letter neuer come fro me. 

25/779. The sense is : but for God's will, i. e. I must bow to God's 
will. 

25/78o. So likewise in La Manekine (4259-60). 
25/782. And toke ]>e kyng vp hastyly. 
25/784. G. both[e]. 

25/793. G. [so gent] ; but this rhyme with nd does not occur in 
Emare. Qy. \>e kynge [so or full kende] ? Cf. Sege of Melayne (1437) : 
"pat wele for kene are kende." In the sense of known, renowned, the 
word is not uncommon, especially in the North. Kende for kynde = 
race, family, also occurs, and the line may have read : pen sayde J?e 
kynge of noble or ryche kende. It is tempting to suggest : " ' Alas,' 
£en sayde ]>e kynge sykende." Then, when the participle became 
sykynge, it might easily have been lost through the repetition of the 
syllable kynge. Cf. note on 1. 877, below. 
25/797. G. omits any. 

25/799 ff- The remission of punishment is peculiar to Emare. In La 
Manekine and Enikel's chronicle she is immured ; in Mai and in Trivet's 
Constance, killed with a sword ; in the other chief versions, burned. 
25/805. When she was fled ouur J?e (see) fome ? 
26/815. So Mai (col. 197, 1. 24) "nieman kunde im trost gegeben." 
26/819 ff. for his sake. He could not possibly blame himself. The 
penance is usually, as in Mai, Trivet, and elsewhere, for killing his 
mother. 



Notes. Pages 26-28, lines 824-878. 45 

26/824. wordes. Not uncommon for worldes. Prompt. Parv. has 
wordely = mundanus ; word occurs in the York Plays, in Havelok, in 
Wars of Alex., Awntyrs off Arthure, Sir Gowther, and elsewhere. 

26/832-34. These details are closely paralleled in Mai (col. 203, 11. 
35-39). 

26/833. G. lust[es]. But ivoremay be singular. Cf. note on 11. 181-82. 

26/835. G- salt[e]. 

27/84iff. Here Trivet approaches Emare most closely. Cf. "Cist 
estoit apris priuement de sa mere Constance, qe, quant il irreit a la feste 
. . . que, totes autres choses lessetz, se meit de-uant le Roi dengle- 
terre, quant il fust assis a manger, pw li seruier ; Et qate de nule part se 
remuat hors del regard al Roi, e qe il se afForsat bien & curteisement lui 
seruir." The heroine's instructions, as far as they go, agree with the 
Babees Book (ed. Furnivall, 1868), much of which was written at about 
this time. 

27/842. G. to here [to] come. But " to here come" is possible. 

27/847. G. shal[t], and shalle may have come by anticipation of 
halle; but it occurs for the second person in the Sege of Melayne. Cf. 
quotation in note on I/3. 

27/850. Loke, sone, so curtays J>o« be. Or, Loke, sone, two mono- 
syllabic feet with a pause between them. 

27/852. Cf. 3/75. 

27/856. G. [y-]done. 

27/864. The only meaning that I can get out of this archaic phrase 
u lovable or amiable under linen " is that the wearing of linen, instead of 
the peasants' wool, was once associated with the idea of good manners 
because only gentlemen could afford linen. The phrase seems to occur 
chiefly in Northern texts. It is equivalent to " goodly under gore " and 
•" seemly under sark." 

27/867. kowrs. Plural in idea. 

27/871. Then sayde alle J?at loked hym vpon'. The hiatus could 
easily be avoided by an -n. 

27/873. G - halle]>]. Cf. 11. 898-9, where holies should be halle to 
accord. But the minstrel was not troubled by the juxtaposition of the 
plural and the generalized singular. Cf. 11. 389-90, also 26, 28, 29 ; 94, 
142 ; 125-26, 127-28, 149-50, 154-55. 

28/874. The kynge sayde. 

28/876. G. omits he seyd. Here again Trivet is very similar : " A ceo 
le Roi demaunda del Iuuencel son noun ; Et il respondi que son noun fu 
Moris." 

28/877. G. fat [ylke]. Or, The [re upo]n ? Or, originally : 
" Then jsat kynge of noble kende, 
Toke vp a grete sykende " ? 

28/878 if. T6ke vp. Hiatus. So in La Manekine, 6017-20 : 
" Quant je regardai cest enfant, 
D'un mien til m'alai a pensant, 
Que j'euch, bien a passe set ans." 

So, Emare, 11. 811-16, suggests La Manekine in the length of time, 
and in the incident of 11. 811-13, which is seemingly generalized, while 
an the French poem it is his own son playing unrecognized in the 
senator's hall, who causes his emotion. 



4G Notes. Pages 28-31, lines 880-1000. 

28/88o. G. adds [any], but the line is conventional as it stands. 
28/887. So La Manekine, 6003-5 : 

" Or me dites voir, biaus dous ostes, 

Si cis enfes ichi est vostres." 
" Oil, sire, voir, il est miens." 
And Gower (1387) : "He seide : Yee, so I him ealle." 

28/890. W(h)esshen a-jeyn aftyr mete. G. a-^eyn [hem] ; but the 
verb is not usually reflexive. 
28/893. G. [a-]downe. 

28/895. G. The kynge J?e bttrgeys called hym tyll. 
28/897. body in the sense of person has been and still is used, especi- 
ally in the North. 

28/901-3. serued— wente — tellys. The minstrel does not pay much 
heed to sequence of tenses. Cf. II. 200-1, 721-23, 745-46, etc. 

28/904. Soone. Son or soon? 

28/905. grete ende. Cf. 1. 917. G. reads grece ende (i.e. top of the 
steps); but the MS. has clearly t. The "great end " of the hand would 
naturally be the thumb (cf. Italian dito grosso, Catalan cfa'i gros, English 
great toe). 

29/909. In the londe of Galys, to avoid hiatus. 

29/916. G. To chamber when J?e kyng shulde wende. 

29/918. G. helpe[d]. 

29/924. A curious synecdoche, which must have arisen in a period 
when chins were not hidden under wimples. 

29/926. G. herd[e]. 

29/929. This scans with two anapests. vmbraydest. This spelling is 
not uncommon, especially in the North. Cf. B. Mannyng (3485, 8004), 
Cleanness (1622, but meaning to accost), Wars of Alexander (1800), 
Destruction of Troy (9903). 

29/935. G. both[e] t[h]o. 

3O/940. The exclamation is singularly modern; but cf. Perceval of 
Galles (1691), Amadace (Robson, 7/9), Patience (264), Pearl (108, 
1148), etc. 

3O/948. G. tolde. Y-tolde is here the preterite representing O.E. 
getealde, not the past participle. 

30/950. G. Was [y-]woxen. 

30/951. G. And thow3t [up-]on. 

30/968. G. grete a lord[yng]. 

31/979. Almost entirely anapestic. 

31/984. G. Hym-self [he] 3 af. 

31/989. A for he may be due to the scribe. It occurs in Wars of 
Alexander (4777, and Ashmole MS. only, 1492), in Sir Ferumbras 
passim, and is found in various dialects to-day, including districts of 
Yorkshire. 

31/992. One of the special directions in the Babees Book. 

31/997. Almost anapaestic. 

31/iooo. G. (Dissertation, p. 3) at first stayde, afterwards say[s]de. 
Perhaps 'sayde = assayde. Cf. Florence of Borne (397) : 



Notes. Pages 31-32, lines 1003-1032. 47 

" And sye the garsons assay \>ax stedys " ; 
also, Eglam (1191) : 

" He rode a course to assay his stede." 
Cf. Sc. say = assay. 

31/1003. The chylde spakke to. 

32/1009-10. G. The emperour sayde and wax all pale, ' Sone, why 
umbraydest me of bale ? ' 

32/1009-14. G. changes the order to 1012-14 following 1008, then 
1009-11, which improves the sense. 
32/ioi2. G. [right] joyful]. 
32/1013. wyHh = into the presence of. 

32/1024. G. of Segr«mo«r. Possibly the scribe momentarily con- 
fused the name with Sir Eglamovr, which he had already copied often 
in the romance of that name. 

32/1031. vsecl by = familiar or well known in? The general sense is 
clear. 

32/1032. The relative ivhich seems to be omitted. In connection 
with the name Erjare, Sir Degarre has an interesting explanation in 
regard to the hermit's christening of the child : 
" He hit nemnede Degarre : 
Degarre nowt elles ne is 
But thing that not neuer whar hit is, 
O the thing that is negth forlorn al so, 
For tli i the schild he nemnede thous tho." — (252-256.) 
Evidently Emare had some such thought in mind when she changed 
her name to E°-are. 



49 



GLOSSARIAL INDEX. 



A, inter j. 25/787, ah. 

A, pron. (?) 31/989, he. 

A-bowe, v. reft. 31/981, bow. 

A-cyse, n. 26/830, a-syse, 29/912, 
manner ; asyce, 24/748, estate. 
Cf. N. E. D. Assize, 8. 

A-ferd, adj. H/321 ; aferde, 21/655, 
a-ferde, 22/698, afraid. 

A-fyne, adv. 211/913, finally ; and 
fyne, I9/580, probably a corrup- 
tion of the same. Fr. a fin. 

A-gayn, A-gayne. See A-^eyn. 

A-\y$te,v. pret. 32/ 1 01 8, dismounted. 

Amerayle, n. 4/109, emir; amer- 
ayles, 6/159. 

Anamered, v. pret. 31/997 (of), was 
charmed with ; an-amered, pp. 
13/400 (of), anamored, 8/226 
(tylle), enamoured. Cf. X. E. D. 
Enamoured. 

And, conj. 32/ion, 1012, if. 

Anker, n. 9/275, anchor. 

A-non), adv. 1 4/442, 27/86o, 28/886 ; 
a-none, 25/777, presently, soon. 

A-qweynte, v. refl. 3O/965, become 
acquainted with. 

Arunde, n. 1/8, errand, message. 

A-ryce, v. 9/260, arise, begin. 

Asowr, n. 4/113, azure. 

Asyce, Asj'se. See A-cyse. 

A-ventowres, n. 24/754, adventures. 

A^eyn, prep. 7/203, 24/752, 29/932, 
3I/986, 32/ioi6, towards ; 7/206, 
opposite ; 31/974, on the occasion 
of; IO/295, contrary to; adv. 
IO/309, 28/890, 29/9IO, again. 
A-gayn, prep, postpos. H/317, 
against ; a-jayne, adv. I0/455, 
again; a-}ayn, prep. 3O/971, 
towards. 

Bale, n. 32/ioio, sorrow. 
Be, prep. 25/787, by. 
Beere, n. I7/539, bear. 
BMAR^!. 



Be-Jeten, pp. 2/44, begotten. '. 

Be-lafte, v. pret. I5/472 ; by-laft, 
1 6/496, remained. 

Be-refe, v. tr. 25/8oi, deprive of; 
pret. be-rafte, 19/582 ; by-rafte, 
25/803. 

Be-sette, pp. I6/482, attacked, sur- 
rounded. 

Be-stadde, pp. H/334, 22/682, be- 
stead. 

Be-Jjowght, v. refl. pret. 9/280 = 
[vm]-bebowgnt, reflected. See 
note. 

Be-tydde, v. 9/253, be-tyde, 30/970, 
happen. 

Ble, n. 9/270, I9/590, 21/644, colour 

Bio, adj. H/318, dark, here applied 
to a stormy sea. 

Blode, n. 3/73, I6/513, 2O/635, race, 
lineage. 

Body, ». 28/897, creature. Cf. 
N. E. D. Ill, 13, for early quota- 
tions. 

Bote, n. 32/ioi 1, help. 

Bour, n. 23/730; bowre, 3/63, 23/ 
740, 28/899 ; bowres, 24/755, 27/ 
873 ; bowrys, 2/28, bower, lady's 
chamber. 

Brede, n. 1 9/581, 29/914, roast 
meat. 

Brente, v. pret. 1 7/533 5 PP- 25/796, 
burned. 

Bryddes, n. 6/166, birds. 

Brym, n. 1 2/349 ; brymme, 22/694, 
shore. 

Bullus, n. 8/239, papal bull. 

Burgeys, n. 26/839, 28/886, 888, 
895, burgess. 

By, prep. IO/294, along. 

Byddynge, n. 24/768, command. 

By-forn, prep. 6/163, before. 

Byggynge, n. 23/709, dwelling. 

By-laft. See Be-lafte. 

By-rafte. See Be-refe. 



50 



Glossarial Index. 



Carbunkulle, n. carbuncle, 5/127. 
Carefulle, adj. 11/328, full of care; 

karefulle, 22/676, 26/8o8. 
Case, n. I9/605, chance ; kase, 21/ 

647. 
Certys, adv. 28/88o, certainly; 

sertes, I9/605. 
Chalange, n. 27/851 (to), fault. Cf. 

N. E. D. Challenge, sb. 3. 
Chare, n. 7/201, travelling-carriage. 
Chawnses, n. (ylle), 22/684, m ' s " 

fortunes. 
Chere, n. 7/214, IO/300, 25/807, 

frame of mind (cf. N. E. D. Cheer, 

2 and 3); 28/892, 31/999, face. 
Chynne, n. 29/924, chin (synecdoche 

for face). 
Clere, adj. 5/128, 8/234, 24/742, 26/ 

810, beautiful. 
Clypte, v. pret. 32/1020, embraced ; 

klypped, 7/212. 
Crapawtes, n. 5/142, toad-stones ; 

crapowtes, 4/94. Cf. N. E. D. 

Crupaud, Crapautee. 
Crystalle, n. 6/155, crystal. 
Crystendom, n. li/428, Christendom. 
Crystyante, n. 4/108, 2O/635, 30/ 

969, Christendom. 
Cumbered, pp. I6/483, oppressed. 
Curtays, adj. 2/36, 40, 3/64, 27/850; 

curteys, 3/74, 23/724, 738, 27/850, 

872, courteous. 
Curtesye, n. 3/58, 1 4/42 5, good 

manners. 
Curteysly(e), adv. 27/868, 28/894, 

mannerly, with good manners. 

Deamondes, n. 5/130, deamoundes, 
6/153, diamonds. 

Dede, v. pret. 9/269, P ut - 

Dele, n. I2/356, sorrow; 2O/613, 
lamentation. 

Dele, v. tr. I/3, 2/42, 26/826, dis- 
tribute. 

De[l]ftille, adj. 19/6o6, doleful, See 
note. 

Delycyus, adj. 12/370, delicious. 

Deuylle, n. 17/5 36, devil. 

Do. See po. 

Dolys, n. 26/826, alms. 

Dome, n. 3I/984, judgment. 

Dowbylle, adj. 1 6/504, double. 

Dragon, n. 17/539. 

Drowj, v. pret. 26/832, drew. 

Drury, adj. 26/8o8, dreary. 



Dwelle, v. I/19, dwelles, 23/721 : 
pret. dwelled, 9/274, H/325, 19/ 
577, 2I/673, remained ; H/340, 
22/686, dwelled. 

Dyght, v. tr. 2/42, ordain, govern, 
prepare, arrange ; dygtrte, I/3 ; 
pret. dyght, 26/830 ; dyjte, 7/193 ; 
dy3th, 26/826; pp. dyght, 4/88, 
5/133, 137, 6/177, IO/285, 14/440, 
23/717 ; dy 3 t, 19/578 ; dy 3 th, 
15/458; y-dy 3 th, I3/395. 

Ellys, adv. 4/105, e ^ se - 
Emerawdes, n. 0/152, emeralds. 
Erdl3 r , adj. I3/396, earthly; erdyly, 

22/701 ; erjjely, 8/245. 
Eyer, n. 22/690, air; eyr. II/346. 

Fare, v. 7/195, go. 

Fay, n. IO/296, faith. 

Fayry, n. 4/104, Qiagic contrivance. 
Cf. N. E. D. Fairy, A. 3. 

Fee, n. 22/686, property. 

Fele, adj. 26/823, many. 

Felle, n. IO/306, skin. 

Feltred, adj. 1 7/540, with matted 
hair. Cf. N. E. D. Fettered. 

Fende, n. H/446, 1 7/540, I8/563, 
fiend. 

Fere, n. 7/215 (in), 8/237 (yn), in 
company, together. 

Ferly, n. 12/351, wonder. 

Fleted, v. pret. IO/313, 21/650, 
drifted. 

Fode, n. I6/507, nurseling, i. e. child. 

Folde, v. tr. 29/939, embrace. 

Fome, n. I6/497, 25/805, 26/8 18, 
foam; 26/835 (synecdoche for 
sea). 

For-bere, v. 20/6 11 (of), forbear. 

For-lorne, pp. 9/255, ' ost ; ^ iere 
damned. 

Fre, adj. l/io, 22, 3/71, 8/247, 10/ 
308, 25/792, 26/831, 27/844, 28/ 
884, 3O/963, 31/979, 32/IOI3, of 
gentle birth and breeding. Cf. 
N. E. D. Free, I, 3. 

Frely, adj. 1 6/507, 29/939, a syno- 
nym of the preceding. 

Fro, prep. 2/53, 17/532, 24/744, 
25/776, from. 

Fryght, n. 19/6oo, frith, i. e. en- 
closed land (held or forest) ; 
frythes, 2/29. 

Fydylleyng, n. I3/390, fiddling. 



Glossarial Index. 



51 



Fyne. See A-fyne. 

Game, n. I0/474, pleasure ; 28/874, 
jest. 

Gave, n. 7/198, gore (synecdoche for 
gown) ; gore, 29/938. 

Garnettes, n. 6/156, garnets. 

Gate, n. 26/828, way. 

Gav, adj. 1 4/444, beautiful. 

Gedered, v. tr.pret. I6/488, gathered. 

Gent, adj. 2/55, 7/191, 18/403, 29/ 
932, 32/ioi6, gentle. 

Gentelle, adj. I-I/441, noble-look- 
ing (?); gentylle, 3/ 73 , 1 6/5 13, 
2O/635, noble, high-born ; gen- 
tylle, 13/391, noble-looking (V). 

Gle, n. 5/132, music ; I5/474, joy. 

Glysteryng, adj. 4/ioo, 12/350, 22/ 
699, glittering. 

Godele, adj. I6/503; godely, 87/198, 
goodly. 

Gore. See Gare. 

Grete ende, 28/905, 29/917, thumb 
(?). See note on I. 905. 

Grette, v. I8/556. 24/772, wept. 

Growht, v.pret.21/669, lamented (?). 
See note. 

Gruf, adj. 2I/656, face downwards. 

Gryght, n. 19/597 = O.E. gri%, pro- 
tection. 

Haluendelle, adv. I4/444, half. 
Happes, n. 21/651, fortunes'. 
Harpe, n, 1 3/390. 
Hele, n. I8/570, health. 
Hende, adj. 3/84 (used substant- 
ively), courteous ; adv. I7/537, 

near. 
Hette, v. pres. 22/703, 704, are called, 

am called; pret. 2/34, I2/360; 

pret. hygfct, H/342, 28/879; h y3 te ; 

3/85, 7/199; or pres. (?) hygth, 

H/338; pres. 28/876. 
He^ennes, n. 4/109, heathendom. 
Hode, n. 3I/992, hood. 
Honeste, adj. 1 3/386, honourable, 

fitting. 
Horn, n. 6/165. 
Hye, adj. 6/165, high. 
Hye, n. 7/193 ( m )» haste; 4/103, 

hygh (on). 
Hyght. See Hette. 
Hynjnir, adj. 21/654, hinder. 
Hy^vnge, n. I6/511 (yn), haste. 
Hy^te, hy^th. See Hette. 



Inne, n. 3O/960, inn ; yn, 26/839. 
Ire, n. I0/455, anger. 

Jwelle, n. 4/107, jewel. 

Karefulle. See Carefidle. 

Kase. See Case. 

Kassydonys, n. 5/128, chalcedony. 

Kaytyf, n. IO/293, caitiff. 

Kelle, n. IO/303, hair-net. 

Kessed, v. pret. 31/995, kissed. 

Keuered, pp. I2/374, 25/784, 30/ 

945, recovered ; kouered, IO/289. 
Klypped. See Clypte. 
Knyjtus, n. 5/151. See note. 
Konnvngest, adj. W/427, most skil- 
ful/ 
Koralle, n. 6/154, coral. 
Kouered. See Keuered. 
Kowrs, n. 27/867, course (of a meal). 
Kowth, v. pret. 2/42 ; kow^e, 2/54, 

21/672, 23/7375 kow 3 f>e, 13/382, 

could. 
Kurtulle, n. 13/392, kirtle, under- 

robe ; kurtylle, 27/848. 
Kygh, n. 19/594 = kith, i.e. native 

land. Cf. N. E. D. Kith, 3. 
Kyngus marke, I6/504, birth-mark 

signifying royalty. 

Lappes, n. 2I/654, folds. Cf. 

N. E. D. Lap. 
Lasshed, v. pret. IO/298, fell in 

showers. 
Lay, n. IO/295, ni w. 
Layes, n. 32/io3o, lays, songi*. 
Le, n. H/348 (of), 26/834 (on). See 

Lythe. 
Leede, n. 22/702, people (yn = 

among). 
Lees, n. 4/i 10, falsehood. 
Lende, v. 17/5 15, arrive. 
Lene, v. tr. I/4, grant. 
Lene, adj. 1 2/365, lean. 
Lent, pp. I3/404, bestowed. 
Lere, n. IO/294, cheeks, face. 
Lesynge, n. 28/88o, falsehood. 
Lette, v. 20/6i8, stop. 
Lettynge, n. 27/843, impediment, 

delay. 
Lor, n. 25/792, lord. 
Lorde, n. used as inter j. 3O/940, Lord. 
LoJ>ly, adj. I8/563, hateful. 
Lufsumme, adj. 27/864, lovable. 
Lust, n. 26/833, wish" 



Glossarial Index. 



Lyflof>e, n. 25/803, means of support. 

Lylye, n. 3/66, 7/205, li] y- 

Lyne, n. 27/864, linen. 

Lyon, n. I7/539, lion. 

Lythe, adj. H/348, 26/834, pleasant, 
combined with le (cf. N. E. D. Lee, 
especially I, 1, 2, 3) calm. But 
also, see note on I. 348. 

Ly^te, v. pret. 7/206, 210, dis- 
mounted. 

Madde, adj. H/335, 22/683, insane. 

Mangery, n. 15/469, feast. 

Marke, v. I2/376, mark, i. e. paint, 
embroider, or perhaps mark for 
embroidering ; marked, pp. show- 
ing marks of. 

Maystrye, n. 6/174, power. 

Menske, n. 3/69, respect, dignity. 

Menstralle, n. 15/468, minstrel ; 
menstrelles, I/13, H/319 ; nien- 
[sjtrelles, 27/867 5 menstrellys, 
5/132. 

Menstralse, n. 13/388, minstrelsy. 

Mete, n. 7/2 18, 13/401, 23/722, food. 

Meteles, adj. I2/355, 3H, 23/718, 
without food. 

Metewhyle, n, 8/229, 13/4o6, meal. 

Moch. See Myche. 

Molde, n. 8/246, mould, earth. 

Mone, n. IO/314, lamentation. 

Moo, adj. 3/6o, more. 

Mornede, v. pret. 23/732, mourned. 

Mornyng, n. I/21, mourning; 20/ 
626, mornynge. 

Mot, v. 25/775, must. 

Myche, adj. 3/78, 4/92, 5/140, 13/ 
388, W/463, 1 6/485, 2O/637, 21/ 
668 ; mychyl, 3/69 ; mychylle, 
5/ 1 31 ; mykelle, 28/885 ; mykylle, 
1/20,11/341,24/747,749,26/892; 
mykulle, 3I/987 ; moch, I5/43, 
much. 

Myn, adj. 29/915, less. 

Mynge, v. 29/926, remind, tell. 

Myrght, n. I/20, mirth. 

Myswrowht, pp. 9/281, done amiss. 

Nakette, n. 4/94, 5/142, a precious 
stone. Agate ? See note. 

Nam, v. pret. 1 2/368, took. 

Ner, v. pret. IO/297, were not. 

Nome, n. 2/27, name. 

Nortur, n. 3/62, nortowre, 23/731, 
good manners. 



Norysse, n. 7/199, nurse. 

Onus, adv. 2I/664, once. 
Onyx, n. 5/128. 

Ordeyne, v. tr. 26/823, equip, pie- 
pare. 
Ore, n. 9/275, 26/832, oar. 
Owth, v. 21/667, ought. 

Palle, n. 27/848, pall, hue cloth. 

Cf. N.E.D. Pall, 1,1. 
Pappe, n. 21/663, breast; pappes, 

21/657. 
Payn), n. 19/595, penalty. 
Perydotes, n. plnr. 6/155, greenish 

chrysolite. (O.Fr. peridot, peri- 

don,pelidor, derivation uncertain.) 
Place, n. I6/499, 25/788 (yn), in 

the course of experience? See note 

on I. 499. 
Play, v. re.fi. 6/183, H/345, 22/68g, 

amuse one's self; 9/254, liave 

sexual intercourse. 
Piaynge, vb. n. 3/78. See Play. 
Pope, n. 8/233, 3O/956 ; Popus, 8/239. 
Powste, n. 26/837, power. 
Poyn, n. 12/357, yn poyn[t] to, at 

the point of. 
Prese, n. 1 5/464, crowd. 
Price, n. 26/829, pryce, 9/259, P r y s » 

I6/485, pryse, 24/749, 3 V985, 

renown ; prys, 4/92, pryse, 5/13 1, 

140, value. 
Prike, v. tr. 23/737, spur. 
Purnyance, n. I0/458, provision. 
Pyght, pp. 4/89, set. 

Rappes, n. 21/66o, blows. 

Eay(e), n. 14 415, striped cloth ; 14/ 

430, I5/451, the same, or rei = 

king ? See note. 
Remeueth, v. 7/187, departs. 
Resseyued, pp. 17/517, I9/578, 

received. 
Romans,n.7/2 1 6,romance (French ?). 
Ruliyes, n. 4/91,5/130, 139, rubies. 
Ryche, adj. 3/8o, 82, 4/ioo, 107, 113, 

U/415, 430, I5/451, 468, 19/590, 

21/644, 22/686, 27/848, 28/912, 

splendid. 
Ryghtwes, adj. I/17, righteous. 

Saf, conj. 2bl77g, save, i. e. except 

(it be). 
Safere, n. 5/127, sapphire. 



Glossarial Index. 



5:s 



Sale, to. 3/62, 16/459, »all. 
Sawe, 11. II/319, story. 
Sawtre, to. 1 3/389, psaltery. 
See-fome, to. 20/805, sea-foam. 
Sembelaut, to. 8/220, appearance. 
Semely, adj. l/ 9 , 2/32,48,4/93,5/135, 

141, 6/171, U/423, 15/459, 471, 

1 6/486, 501, 30/942, fair, seemly. 
Senatowres, to. 5/152. /See ?io£e on I. 

151. 
Serke, to. 1 6/501, smock. 
Sertes. /S'ee Certys. 
Seuen-ny3th, n. II/326; seuene 

nyght, 2I/674, week. 
Shate, v. tr. pret. 9/273, pushed. 
Shene, adj. 6/150, Hi/489, 29/933, 

shining. 
Shente,^. 2O/628, ruined. 
Shypmen, to. 26/829. sailors. 
Shoope, v. tr. pret. 1/2, created. 
Shylynge, to. I7/524, shilling. 
Shype, to. 2O/638, to shype = aboard. 
Slye, adj. 3/67, skilful. 
Smalle, adj. I3/391, slender. 
Suelle, adv. IO/309, quickly. 
Sond, to. H/332, dispensation. 
Sond(e),TO. I/18, 12/352,20/645, sand. 
Sowdan, to. 6/158, 170, 173, sultan. 
Sowened, v. pret. 2I/645, 26/780, 

29/935, swooned. 
Sowenynge, to. IO/284, I8/551 ; 

sownyng, IO/289 i swonynge, 19/ 

608 ; swooning. 
Specyally, adv. 28/900, specially. 
Specyalte, n. 6/176, in specyalte, as 

a special gift. 
Spedde, j)p. I7/519, prospered. 
Spendyng, to. 9/271, I9/592, money 

to spend. 
Sprynge, v. 9/256, lie spread abroad. 
Spycerye, to. 27/853, 28/891, the 

sweet course. 
S[t]ayde (V), v. tr. pret. 31/iooo, 

reined in ? But see note on I. 1000. 
Stede, to. 12/372, place. 
Stounde, n. I/19, while. 
Stronge, adj. 2I/665, rough. 
Stuffed, pp. 6/168, thickly crowded. 
Stye, to. 7/196, 17/543, path. 
Stynte, v. IO/302; tr. 26/815, stop. 
Surkote, to. 21/652, surcoat, upper 

dress. 
Swayne, to. I3/384, countryman. 
Swyde, adv. 7/219, swybe, 8/242, 

quickly. 



Sy, v. tr. pret. 27/869 5 s >'e, 3/68 , 
s >'3) 13/398; sy^en, IO/299, saw. 

Syche, adj. 20/626, sucb. 

Sygh, adv. 18/56o = sy)^e, afterwards. 

Sy'kyng, to. H/328, 22/6/6; syk- 
ynges, 26/809, sighing. 

Sympnlle, adj. 2O/632, of humble 
origin. 

Sybe, to. 22/692, side. 

Sybe, «. 8/225, time. Ofte sibe, 
often. 

Tabonrs, to. I3/389, drums. 

Take, v. tr.pret. 29/920, give ; toke, 

I8/547 ; toke hem be-twene, 25/ 

799, decided. 
Takulle, to. 26/830, tackle. 
Tane, v. tr. 22/690, take. 
Tawjte, v. tr. pret. 3/6 1, 1 2/376, 23/ 

731 ; thaw^th, 3/58 ; thaw3te, 31/ 

973, taught. 
Tene, to. I6/483, distress. 
Testymonyeth, v. 32/1029 ; testi- 

moyeth, 6/162, testifies. 
Thaw^th. See Taw^te. 
The, v. 25/775, thrive. 
Thewe, to. 3/58, behaviour. 
The, prep. 17/528, to. 
p.>, adv. 29/926, 3O/956, 32/ioi8; 

boo, 2/5 1,28/885; do, 17/533, then. 
ponge, v. pret. 2I/659 = dong, struck. 
powht, v. pret. I2/356; (sow^tfe], 

30/951, 955, K»w 3 th, 8/227, 22/ 

700, thought. 
pow 3 t(h), n. 8/223, 227, 17/530, 

thought, 
powjtur, to. 8/226, I4/422; Jsowjbur, 

32/iooS, daughter. 
prynge, v. IO/304, throng. 
Th'ylie. See Tylle. 
pyng(e), n.plur.2/41, 3/64, 75, 11/ 

333, 12/379, 13/382, 15/466, 18/ 

560, 22/68i, 23/712, 724, 24/762, 

27/852, 3O/964, 3I/976, things. 
Topase, to. 5/139, topaze, 4/9 1, topaz. 
Tre, to. I2/365, staff or stick; 21/ 

656, probably, thwart. See note on 

I. 365. 
Trewe-loue-flour, to. 6/125. r 49, Herb 

Paris. See note on I. 125. 
Trommpus, to. I3/389, trumpets. 
Trone, to. l/i, 22/68o, 26/820, 836, 

throne. 
Tyde, to. I6/487, 22/691, 31/993, 

time. 



54 



Glossarial Index. 



Tylle, prep, postpos. 8/226, 18/411, 
28/895, 902, to ; conj. I8/545, 570, 
thylle, I6/502, until. 

Valed, v.pret. 3I/992, doffed, pushed 

down. 
Vanyte, n. 4/105, illusion. 
Verament,«rfy. H/433, 20/6 19, truly. 
Vertues, n. 5/152, magic powers. 
Vmbraydest, v. tr. 29/929, 32/ioio, 

upbraidest. 
Vnhende, adj. I4/445, discourteous ; 

I7/534, 25/794, evil. 
Vnseinely, adj. 21/66o, rude. 
Vnykorn, n. 6/164, unicorn. 
Vseden', v. pret. 3/62, practised ; pp. 

vsed, 32/1031, familiar. 
Vyce, n. 24/742 ; Vysage, n. 2I/653, 

face. 

Wan, v. tr. pret. 6/173, w on. 
Wanne, adj. 24/771, wau. 
Warye, v. tr. 21/667, curse. 
Wawe, n. H/322 ; wawes, 2I/658, 

wave. 
Wax, v. pret. 23/728, 24/771 , 32/ 1 009, 

grew ; woxen, 3O/950. 
Weddewede, n. 3/77 (yn), widow- 
hood, i. e. as a widower. 
Wede, n. 8/250, 12/366, H/447, 20/ 

612, 22/699, 23/736, 31/988, dress. 
Wedur, n. H/348, weather ; we- 

derus, H/336; wej?ur, 26/834. 
Wele, n. 26/824, wealth. 
Welle-a-wey, inter j. 26/8 12, alas. 
Wende,v. 3/81,6/184,17/514,531, go. 
Wene, n. 5/153, doubt. 
WeshjU^ret. 7/218, washed; w(h)es- 

shen, 28/890 ; wysh, 27/866. 
Whales bone, 2/33, walrus-ivory. 

See note. 
Wolde, n. W399, power. 
Wone, 0.I/5, 32/ 1 034, dwell; woned, 

26/840. 



Woo, n. H/324, 336, I8/555, 20/te 1, 

637, 2I/648, 22/684, 28/882, 29/ 

925 ; wo, I8/573, 24/763. 
Worche, v. tr. ft/227, work, do. 
Wordes, n. 26/824, world's. See note. 
Wordy, adj. 8/250, I2/366, H/447; 

worjjy, 20/612, 23/736, 31/988, 

worthy. 
Wordyly, adv. 3/83, worthily. 
Worshyp, n. 3O/966, honour. 
Worth, v. 2I/648, 22/684, come u P on 

(wo . . . worth). 
Wote, v. tr. pres. indie. 9/269,knows; 

pret. wyste, 19/579 ; infin. wyte, 

5/153,14/435. 
Wryng, v. 28/88 1, force their way. 
Wyght, n. 22/701, being. 
Wyght, adj. 2/39, brave. 
Wynne, v. tr. 30/957, wynnen, 26/ 

827, win. 
Wysh. See Wesh. 

jaf hem ylle, 25/778, lamented. 

3arked, v. H/329, 22/677 (3 ore )> pre- 
pared ready, i. e. ordained. See 
note. 

Y-dy3th. See Dyglit. 

iede, v. pret. 7/213, 2I 5> went ; jode, 
I7/516. 

\lke, adj. 4/114, 6/166, each; 24/ 
770, same. 

Ymagerye, n. 6/168, figures. 

^ode. See ^ede. 

jonge. See 3.ynge. 

300, adv. 28/888, yea. 

3ore, adv. H/329, 22/677, ready. 
See jarked. 

Yrjpe, n. IO/285, earth. 

Y-wysse, adv. 28/906, certainly. 

Y3en, n. IO/297, eyes. 

3 yf, conj. 20/6i6, 31/980, if. 

jynge, adj. 2/41, 3/65 IO/301, 305, 
12/380, I8/569, 20/6io, 23/710, 
725, young ; 3onge, 22/707. 



55 



INDEX OF NAMES. 



Abro, 2/57, 3/6 1, 7/199, Abra. 

Amadas, 5/122. 

Artyus, 2/27, 37, Arthur. 

Babylone, 6/158. 

Blawncheflour, 5/146. 

Brytayne, 32/1030. 

Cesyle, 3/8o, 6/1 81, Sicily. 

Egare, 12/360, 24/761, 29/908, 923, 

32/1007 ; Egarye, 1 4/437, 22/704, 

26/8io, 32/1007, 1032. 
Emare, I/23, 2/47, 27/841, 29/907, 

922, 3O/952, 961, 31/973, 982, 32/ 

1006, 1023 ; Emarye, 26/840. 
Erayne, 2/34. 
Florys, 5/146. 
France, 1 6/481. 



Galys, H/338, I6/484, 487, 24/743, 
746, 29/909, 3O/967, 31/986. 

Isowcle, 5/134. 

Iurdan, 22/687. 

Kadore, H/342, 12/361, 13/385, 409, 
U/416, 421, I6/490, 508, 24/758, 
25/775, 30/940; Kodore, 24/751. 

Rome, 8/233, 238, 22/679, 30/959- 

Sai^yne, 1 6/482. 

Segramour, I6/506 ; Segramowre, 
23/739, 3I/995, 31/iooo; Segra- 
mowres, 28/876 ; [SJegramour, 
32/1024. 

Tergaunte, 3/85. 

Try strain, 5/134. 

Ydoyne, 5/122. 



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